handling a fire, Sichuan style
Let’s talk about where I live for a moment, shall we? A few weeks ago I had my students brainstorm topics that I might mention when introducing Sichuan to those of you who haven’t had the privilege of being here in person. Some of their ideas included pandas, spicy, mahjong, and mountains . These are indeed some of the first things that I think of when I consider elements of the particular culture of Sichuan. Other students got even more specific — and garnered laughs from classmates — by adding Sichuanese , the dialect (which is similar to, but noticeably different from, Mandarin.) Allow me to add another element: laid-back. Casual would also be an appropriate term. This is my second year living in Sichuan and, to be honest, a lot of my everyday life has come to feel pretty normal to me. It was fun to have Laura visiting a couple of weeks ago and to get a glimpse of it through her eyes, a little bit of a throwback to my semester in Xiamen, when everything