...China itself is where it's at.
In this country the sheer volume of civilization is something truly astonishing. The Wenzhou Airport lies a good distance from the city center, but all along the road into town are high-rise apartments and suburbs with no boundaries. So many that I feel like this city alone could house all the people in the state of Oregon - though how long before the proximity with each other would drive us Western people insane I don't presume to judge.
The first day I arrived in Wenzhou (Saturday) my teacher, colleague and host Julie took me to buy some essentials for my apartment as well as some underwear and a T-shirt until my luggage arrives.
After my shopping was done (at the THIRD Wal-Mart-like store (hisssssss) that I've been to this week), we went to a department store where Julie's husband (Mr. Mu) tried on some Playboy(c) brand sandals. While sitting with Mr. Mu I had an "Adrian Monk moment" when I looked at a wall of sandals and saw that one of the labels (among perhaps forty) was upside down.
(For added effect I even cocked my head to the side and winced like Tony Shaloub).
While Julie sat with her husband and he continued to try on sandals I got up, went over to the wall, pulled out the label and reinserted it right-side up.
...it's good to hang on to some of your obsessive qualities even when you're this far from home. It's a small part of you that doesn't change.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
I made it...
There is a certain inconvenient/serendipitous quality that one could ascribe to me when it comes to airports and making connections in the midst of travel.
At PDX over a year ago I missed the shuttle back to my college campus and had to pay $40 to get another shuttle to drive me to school. Inconvenient no doubt, but serendipitously I had a really great driver named John with whom I conversed the whole way back.
I mention this because on the way to Shanghai I had a similar misadventure when I missed my connecting flight to Vancouver in Seattle, but ended up in the front row of the next airline, where I got to talk to a very nice flight attendant named Stephanie.
True my luggage didn't get on the flight to Shanghai and I had to buy a new T-shirt and underwear my first day in Wenzhou, but I choose to place a higher value on the inflight conversation than on the absence of my extra clothes.
Admittedly I did learn one valuable lesson from this event: always pack an extra pair of underwear in your carry-on, no matter how much you trust the crew.
The flight over the Pacific was surprisingly pleasant. I sat next to a young African-Canadian woman from Ontario named Aya who was going to medical school in Hubei. She's a returning sophomore in a five year program of combined Traditional and Western Medicine. I think she's Moslem because she wore a black hood that covered her head and neck.
On my little TV I watched "10,000 BC" (weak plot no doubt, but I was having trouble writing lesson plans and needed a distraction) and listened to the radio. I found a really catchy Jamaican song called "Take you there", and listened to "Bleeding Love" (my brothers' most-listened-to-song of the summer), so it was a nice way to depart the continent.
For my one-night layover in Shanghai I was instructed to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon if I was tired, get up for a few hours to eat dinner, then sleep for the rest of the night to avoid any jet-lag. I went to bed around 17:30 local time and slept the rest of the night. I woke up several times, but stayed in bed with my eyes closed until around 7:00 in the morning.
Not quite as I was instructed, but it worked.
My teacher-now-colleague Julie and her husband picked me up at Wenzhou Airport that morning (8/23/08 locally) and after my bags still failed to show up they took me to my apartment, then shopping to get some slippers, a T-shirt, underwear (which was embarrassing) and some plates and bowls.
We had lunch in a small restaurant in Chashan (the University town) and dinner at a restaurant in downtown Wenzhou that does a lot of Northeast-style food (where Julie is from).
It's hot and muggy, I don't know when I start teaching, what I'm supposed to be teaching is still a somewhat elusive concept, I'm dehydrated, I hardly understand anything that others are saying, and to top it all off, my bags are still missing...
...life is good.
At PDX over a year ago I missed the shuttle back to my college campus and had to pay $40 to get another shuttle to drive me to school. Inconvenient no doubt, but serendipitously I had a really great driver named John with whom I conversed the whole way back.
I mention this because on the way to Shanghai I had a similar misadventure when I missed my connecting flight to Vancouver in Seattle, but ended up in the front row of the next airline, where I got to talk to a very nice flight attendant named Stephanie.
True my luggage didn't get on the flight to Shanghai and I had to buy a new T-shirt and underwear my first day in Wenzhou, but I choose to place a higher value on the inflight conversation than on the absence of my extra clothes.
Admittedly I did learn one valuable lesson from this event: always pack an extra pair of underwear in your carry-on, no matter how much you trust the crew.
The flight over the Pacific was surprisingly pleasant. I sat next to a young African-Canadian woman from Ontario named Aya who was going to medical school in Hubei. She's a returning sophomore in a five year program of combined Traditional and Western Medicine. I think she's Moslem because she wore a black hood that covered her head and neck.
On my little TV I watched "10,000 BC" (weak plot no doubt, but I was having trouble writing lesson plans and needed a distraction) and listened to the radio. I found a really catchy Jamaican song called "Take you there", and listened to "Bleeding Love" (my brothers' most-listened-to-song of the summer), so it was a nice way to depart the continent.
For my one-night layover in Shanghai I was instructed to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon if I was tired, get up for a few hours to eat dinner, then sleep for the rest of the night to avoid any jet-lag. I went to bed around 17:30 local time and slept the rest of the night. I woke up several times, but stayed in bed with my eyes closed until around 7:00 in the morning.
Not quite as I was instructed, but it worked.
My teacher-now-colleague Julie and her husband picked me up at Wenzhou Airport that morning (8/23/08 locally) and after my bags still failed to show up they took me to my apartment, then shopping to get some slippers, a T-shirt, underwear (which was embarrassing) and some plates and bowls.
We had lunch in a small restaurant in Chashan (the University town) and dinner at a restaurant in downtown Wenzhou that does a lot of Northeast-style food (where Julie is from).
It's hot and muggy, I don't know when I start teaching, what I'm supposed to be teaching is still a somewhat elusive concept, I'm dehydrated, I hardly understand anything that others are saying, and to top it all off, my bags are still missing...
...life is good.
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