Peter Hessler, Dean Li and Dr. Silver

Peter Hessler was a Peace Corp Volunteer who taught English at YZNU (Yangtze Normal University)in 1996. The same university where I'm teaching.
Peter Hessler wrote a book about his two year experience titled, "River Town." He is also the author of Oracle Bones and Country Driving.
He is now the Beijing correspondent for the New York Times.

The Peace Corps seems to have established its roots in Fuling since 1996 and there have been volunteers here since.
Probably because Peter Hessler made China, YZNU and Fuling so famous. Btw, If you want to know what It's like over here but would rather hear it from a well known author then read, "River Town." It's a great book so far. Google Peter Hessler, too. He's kind of a big deal.

I met with Dean Li yesterday to discuss my class schedules, course lesson topics, etc.
We also spoke about my life after college, family, life experiences, etc.
In the middle of our two hour meeting (chat) he tells me that he was one of the first people to welcome Peter Hessler to YZNU.
This quickly grabbed my attention, because I'm in the middle of reading "River Town."
In fact, it's a book that was recommended to me by Dr. Silver before coming over here.

So, Peter Hessler meets Dean Li as a teacher at YZNU and Dr. Silver gives me a book title over the phone one day and I happen to buy it.

The plot thickens...

With all my attention on Dean Li, he shocks me one more time and says, "I visited Charleston for two weeks in 2006 where I taught classes at The Citadel and CofC. (I didn't bother asking which students he preferred). haha
So! Dean Li and Dr. silver have at least known each other since 2006. Dean Li even attended one of the Friday parades at The Citadel.
His thoughts about witnessing a parade: "I don't know how to describe it. I had never experienced something like that. It was very...strict." He had a long pause between the words "very" and "strict." I don't know if it was his vocabulary that limited his expression or his politeness. Or, maybe he really thought it was, "strict."
I said to Dean Li, "2006? I was there! I was a knob." A knob sweating it out during a typical Friday parade with thoughts of a spirit run to follow, followed by a full night of cleaning for SMI. I didn't tell him all this but In the end he saw me march in that Friday parade.

My relationship with Dr. Silver at the time was not formed yet. He only knew me as one of his knob advisees, and I only knew him as my Academic adviser. The following year as a Big Bad Sophomore, I would have Dr. Silver's Statistics class.
Mikey Pilotte, who went to high school with me in Orlando, was in the same Stats. class. Mikey helped me convince my parents in going on a three week trip to Taiyuan who Dr. Silver advertised. This three week trip was what catalyzed my interest in China and was what made me study abroad in Shanghai my senior year.

Now I'm an English teacher at YZNU working under Dean Li.

It's a small world.



P.S. Dean Li has translated "Country Driving" into Chinese and is working on translating "River Town."