When we landed in Xiangyang, the airport reminded me exactly of the airport I landed in in Iquitos, Peru. It was teeny, just one small building in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees in the distance. AND HOT AND HUMID. Really hot and humid, just like Iquitos was. What I didn't realize was that we had just landed in one of the three hottest provinces in China. I'm just glad we were coming at the END of the summer, and leaving in the BEGINNING of it.
By this time, all of us teachers had got along pretty well. We all basically decided that we needed to look out for each other in Xiangyang, because it was going to be a huge difference in culture and that's tough to deal with alone. (Note to all you travelers and potential travelers: make friends...or bring them. They can be friends you make that are from your own country or friends from where you're traveling to, just make friends. If you're going to a place where you'll experience culture shock, it's really hard to do it alone.)
So not long after we landed in Xiangyang, we got picked up by our boss in a little bus. We stuffed our luggage (it was A LOT of luggage) into the back of the bus and stuffed ourselves into the front of it. The bus's AC was turned off. When our boss asked the driver to turn it on, he looked at him with a rather shocked expression, then reluctantly switched it on. I think he must have put it on low though because the AC was PATHETIC. And he kept the windows wound firmly up. So twelve of us are sitting in this bus all stuffed up into it with our luggage stuffed in the back, and the AC is on very weakly. Soon the air begins to get REAL thin. The bus ride was supposed to be 40 minutes to an hour long. If things kept on the way they were going, we would not have made it with enough air. It LITERALLY was like sticking your head in a pillow case, sealing up the sides and trying to breathe. The air would eventually run out. The air supply was getting less and less. Nobody said anything, and now I was getting angry. I stared at the bus driver who was just driving casually on. I looked at everyone else who was beading up with sweat just like I was myself. And finally I said with a hard smile (I smile hard when I'm angry and I'm trying to be polite), "Do you think we could turn UP that AC? Or open the window or something? It feels like when you stick your head under a pillowcase and try to breathe." So finally the guy turned up the AC and though things weren't ideal, at least we would survive the trip.
Now after I wasn't so concerned about my life anymore, I started to look around outside. We were on the airport's highway that led to the main highway, and since it was a small town, NOBODY was driving on it...except some wagons pulled by motorcycles. YET WE WERE DRIVING AT 35 MPH. ON A HIGHWAY. WITH TWO OR THREE LANES ON IT. I asked our assistant boss who was also riding with us if this was normal (or maybe the bus was just old?). He said, "Yeah, this is basically the general speed you'll come across in Xiangyang, they don't get much faster than this." I asked him why. He said he didn't know, but it could be several reasons. One, they don't really follow proper driving rules in this city. For example, THEY WILL DRIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. Wagons will ride in the middle of the road, not on the side. People will jay-walk when there are tons of cars coming and just hop around them. And two, wagons and tractors are also very common forms of transportation found on the roads. They don't go as fast as normal cars do, so it's possible everyone adjusts to them. I think the first one makes more sense to me. Everyone goes slow because they have to in order to avoid an accident.
Along the way we had to cross a bridge over a river. Our assistant boss explained to us that this is the Han River. It was a tributary to the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world and the longest river in Asia. I saw a different part of the river last time I was in China, when I went to Lijiang in Yunnan Province.
When we got to the school, it really was a gorgeous setting. The campus is embedded in a group of small mountains, and there are a ton of really great photo ops. I'll take some pictures once I get my hands on a camera and post them here. We're right next to a mountain called Long Zhong mountain. This is the mountain that Zhuge Liang spent a ton of time on when he was chilling out in Xiangyang.
There's this one pretty mountain where you look to the top and there's a pretty pagoda peaking out high above its trees. Me and the other teachers plan on making a hike to the top of that mountain one day.
Other notes: My apartment is much bigger than what I had last time in Kunming, and after I cleaned it REALLY WELL, now it's quite pretty. I put up my posters and all the other pictures I brought with me and now it looks really quite homey. I officially have a pet, which decided it wanted to live with me just a few days ago. It is a little bat that likes to sleep in the corner of one of my windows, and I decided I don't mind it there anymore. I've named it Flower, like the skunk from Bambi. It sleeps there in the day, and then right at twilight it crawls down the grid of my window and flies out into the night. I decided it's cute now, and it can be my daytime guardian. It's really lazy, it goes hunting for maybe a couple hours and then comes back to the window and continues sleeping. It sleeps for like 90% of the day.
Also when I wake up in the morning, I wake up to the sound of roosters, which crow all the way until maybe 2 in the afternoon. I'm telling you, this place is RURAL. But I like it.
I spent three or four days of this last week getting very sick and dehydrated. That wasn't fun, but that happens every single time I go on an adventure like this. Now I'm better, but I was worried I had appendicitis for a second, but I realized that might have been because I took an iron supplement on a dehydrated and empty stomach when I hadn't eaten for 24 hours and that's generally not a good idea to do. (Note to travelers and future travelers: DRINK FLUIDS EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO when you go to a foreign country. It's more important even than eating food. And then, if you do get dehydrated, DO NOT take an iron supplement on a completely empty stomach.)
Anyway, more stuff later. That's the end of my introduction.
No comments:
Post a Comment