TWO BOTTLES OF WATER

In this collection of essays, Flaugher reflects upon the 18 months she and her husband spent in Beijing, China, at the beginning of the 21st century.

China had not been the author’s original intended destination. She was about to execute a contract naming her Head of School for the International School of Quatar, and both she and her husband were set to leave Denver, Colorado, in September of 2001. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, she applied, with mixed feelings, to head the International School of Beijing. The second interview was conducted in China, and soon afterward she was offered a three-year contract. In June of 2002, Flaugher and her husband arrived in Beijing to begin a new adventure in a country where they did not yet speak the language. Their spacious apartment was in a newly built residential complex; all of the residents were Chinese, and none spoke English. Her neighbors, per Flaugher, often viewed the couple with raised eyebrows as “laowai,” or “foreign devils” (“the Chinese were still quite suspicious of Americans”). She loved the work and made some lasting friendships with her co-workers, but navigating the many differences between her life in the U.S. and the customs of this very foreign land frequently proved challenging. The highlight was a school trip to Mongolia—they trekked into the Gobi Desert, and the author got to ride a Bactrian (two-humped) camel. Flaugher’s prose is lively and entertaining, though the book’s format—a collection of stand-alone essays—leads to a significant amount of reiteration. The entries about Mongolia are filled with fascinating tidbits about the Nomads, including their love and respect for camels, both domestic and wild. (At watering holes, the wild camels are given protective deference because they are endangered.) The details about the workings of the International school within the confines of totalitarian restrictions are highly informative, and her coverage of the Chinese government’s handling of the SARS epidemic provides a window into how it handled the Covid-19 crisis almost 20 years later.

Intriguing, refreshingly honest, and enlightening, despite some repetitive descriptions.