“I’m in Chengdu, China.” No matter how much I say it to myself, it doesn’t seem believable. How did I get here? What am I doing where? And, more importantly, why am I here?
How did I get here?
An delayed airplane from Chicago took me to Beijing on October 1st landing on October 2nd where I missed my 2nd flight. United was nice enough to give me a hotel reservation and a meal ticket good for 15 dollars. Which I thought was fifteen RMB or yuan. Mary, a rather new grandmother trying in vain to connect to her flight, was kind enough to point this out to me as we sat down for a late 10:45pm dinner in the hotel restaurant. Mary was headed to (insert unpronounceable Chinese city #1 here) to see her son, daughter-in-law, and two Chinese-Canadian grandkids. “Everything happens for a reason” was her mantra, at least for a day of flight delays.
Dinner was not what I was hoping for for my first meal in China: minestrone soup with garlic bread and fresh green salad. However, it’s what my body craved after who knows how many hours on a plane. I could not understand what time it was and didn’t care. All I knew was I had a bed upstairs in a very swanky hotel room with keycard activated lights. Bed time came fast, but morning faster.
The phone rang at 4:30 AM on October 3rd, with almost 5 hours of sleep (plus the 2 on the plane, but how many hours ago was that? A day? A month? A year? Another exaggerated period of time?), I awoke in Beijing and headed to the airport to speak with Sichuan Airlines. Though they had told me the day before to be there at 5:30, they could not help me until 6:40. After finding some food in the form of mysterious muffins with maybe fruit inside(?), served warm, a mocha, and a bottle of water, which all set me back nearly 60 RMB ($8.50?), I returned to Sichuan Airlines to pester them into letting my fly. After being told that this is “holiday week, all full, all full”, I landed a standby (which in Chinese airlines means that you actually have a seat and were never standing by to wait for one). I raced to the gate with 5 minutes to get there after checking two bags, that for whatever reason had no baggage cost. I was aided in my attempt to meet the plane by a Chinese man on a cart, who tricked me by offering me a ride and then revealing there was a fee (Chinese lesson #1). The 10 RMB was gladly doubled as we raced towards the gate, action-movie style. At the gate, I got on a bus(?) which drove us to the plane out on the tarmac. I made it, I was headed to Chengdu.
Sichuan airlines serves food, on a 2.25 hour flight! Not that I could identify much of what I ate: a potato piece, a weird dry-cake-like-rice-like/really-not-sure-what, and some other things. As we descended through Chengdu’s clouds, I saw the city in the distance and farmland with dirt paths underneath our path.
At the baggage claim, both my bags were together, side-by-side. Perhaps my luck was turning. (After an exhausting week at home in Evanston, IL where everything that could go wrong seemed to, minus the wonderful support from both my parents, it was about time for things to start going my way. Right?) I turned to exit, knowing that I had yet to tell Sarah from Dipont that I had a flight, and was greeted by Sarah! Tina, another Dipont employee in the office had called Sichaun Airlines and found out that I was on a plane. I was very impressed and presented Sarah with a Chicago Bears hat that I had picked up in O’hare as thanks. I mentioned I was a bit hungry and thirsty and we drove into the heart of Chengdu. Bikes and bicycles were everywhere as were pedestrians crossing the street. Every second it seems an accident is just averted. Sarah mentioned that every teacher has a bike. We’ll see.
Lunch was delicious. Sarah ordered for the table and plate after plate of food danced to the table. First was some kind of mushroom that’s not quite a mushroom, or at least I think that’s what Sarah explained. She had decided not to tell me what most dished are until I have tried them. Served with the first dish was lettuce with a peanut-sauce, I think. I had mentioned to Sarah that I would like to stay away from spicy food at the present as I do not have a high tolerance. The next dish was beef served over bean sprouts. Delicious and it had a kick though Sarah did not agree. She did warn me that the next one would be a little spicy. I put a bite of, I think very very slim beef, into my mouth and was met with a rush of unknown flavors. This, this was Chinese food and wow is it flavorful. My silly American taste buds tried to understand the depth of flavor, but eventually the spiciness won. My chopsticks steered themselves toward the cool lettuce for a rest. The most interesting dish was what appeared to be cantaloupe, and might have been but tasted a bit off, with a firmly set brown and white pudding. Sarah could not explain this one well enough for me to understand. Tofu soup entered the table, as did dumplings. The dumplings were served all connected by a crispy fried lattice-like thing (I dislike the use of thing here but really don’t possess the words to describe this). Breaking the dumpling free was the easiest chopstick move in the meal. The meal was wonderful and quite filling.
Chinese food is served in big dishes and everyone using his or her chopstick to take food; chopsticks that go into one’s mouth. And speaking of chopsticks, they are not my best friend…yet. Sarah thought I was poorly skilled, and yet I was overjoyed that the food was continually making it to my mouth! Sarah paid on Dipont and we headed over to Gregory, another teacher’s apartment.
Gregory teaches AP Physics and has for three years. He is the longest lasting teacher at the Chengdu Foreign Languages School, where I will work. There is a high turn-over rate. He has a thick Russian accent and very energized spirit. With a 31-year-old son who was recently married, Gregory is not in my age bracket. I don’t think the other teachers will be either. Granted, I was not originally hired to be a teacher. The AP Psychology course was mentioned only a few weeks before I got here. I hope I don’t disappoint, but every other teacher is, as I thought, a teacher—like a real teacher: older, with teaching experience, and a great knowledge of their subject matter. I suppose I’ll cross that bridge when I get there—which will be Saturday when I have my first class, an 80 min class. Class is usually Monday through Friday, but we are making up for this week not having school, as it is Chinese national holiday. Thankfully that means I have a couple days to make a lesson plan or sleep. Maybe even both.
Gregory lives in the same apartment complex as many of the other teachers. Thus after watching some Chinese television with Sarah, it was time to look for my apartment. I followed Sarah and the realtor around. Sarah translated and we saw 5 different apartments for all different prices. I had yet to unpack my camera (still haven’t) and should have: I couldn’t keep them straight. We spent maybe 2 minutes in each one. Chinese are quick! Reckless? Perhaps, but quick. The first one was quite dirty, though very cheap. The second one is already forgotten. The third one was nice, only because it was on the 5th floor. The fourth one had a shower door! It is not custom here for shower doors/shower curtains/wall for shower, so this one was tempting, but it was the most expensive and had three bedrooms. My two bags would not be able to fill the space at all. The fifth apartment (first 5) on the fifth floor (second 5) inside the door marked 5 (third 5) was somehow very nice. No shower curtain means just a showerhead next to the toilet with a drain in the floor. Thus, I’ll need a mop. The mattresses, unlike the other four places, where 2 inches thick and rock hard. I told Sarah that if we could switch the mattresses and negotiate the price down, I would take it. We were able to do both and when the landlord returns after holiday I will pay have a place to call home. Sarah thinks I’m very lucky for the deal that I got. My first apartment that I will own will be in China. But this still feels like a dream.
I went to Sarah’s apartment for dinner with her husband, mom, and cousin. Her mom wanted Sarah to tell me that I’m cute. Lily, the hiring manager, told Sarah to look for a tall cute guy at the airport; so much for rugged American. Dinner conversation was all in Chinese and I sampled all but one dish. It had been a long day of new things so I gave myself a pass on duck legs? Sarah insisted they were hands, but I couldn’t handle that…yet. I did bite into some delicious meat and Sarah asked me if I liked it and then mentioned it was rabbit. I could care less about eating rabbit; it’s delicious–like chicken plus beef in texture. The family enjoyed watching me try to use chopsticks.
We bused home and I found some time to start thinking about: what I have just done?
So I got here by airplane. What am I doing here? This question will probably need to wait. I was hired to have a college counselor-type position as well as teach AP psychology. I do not know much about my job responsibilities, so we’ll see what happens. Going to be an interesting first month for sure.
Why am I here? Haha, your guess is as good as mine. I have a yearning for travel. I want to experience a life that is full. But perhaps, and I say this on the 2nd day that I may have bitten off way more than I can chopstick, which as I was reminded of today, is not much. However, I am willing.
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