Randomness on Bus 12 and 59

I quietly left my apartment after a satisfying nap, leaving a sleeping Serena behind, and wandered towards the Bus 12 bus stop. Kyle, another teacher in my program, had unexpectedly and very randomly (I don't know him too well and didn't know he even had my phone number) interrupted my afternoon beauty rest to let me know he was meeting a woman who had information on tutoring young Chinese children in English for extra money. He invited me to join him. I felt excited and free as I boarded Bus 12 all by myself and took one of my usual spots near the front against the length of the bus where I could observe other riders. Today, a man who looked half Caucasion and half Chinese with white hair and a large body sat across from me and stared me down. I always respond to these stares with a smile, and usually they smile back and then look away, but he just continued to stare. A couple also sat across from me, and I noted once again that Chinese couples are much more affectionate than Indian couples. The man massaged his girlfriend/wife's neck as she leaned forward and closed her eyes. I reminisced on my foot massage from last night. Massages here are not relaxing; they are PAINFUL. At least all the ones I've received so far. I think the masseuses here are really good at what they do - they find every knot, every tender or strained spot, and they really work it all out. My foot massage last night was so painful for the first 45 minutes, but by the last 15 minutes my feet had adjusted to the pressure and I could've gone on longer. Today my feet and ankles are sore from the massage.

I consulted my bus map as we rode along through Futian district, past Hua Qiang Bei, and I jumped out near Shenzhen University where I was to meet Kyle. "Ranja!" I heard him yell. "Ranjana," I corrected him and promised to continue to correct him for the duration of the evening. "We have a problem," he said and quickly filled me in. This lady had given him the Chinese characters for the bus stop near the school where we were meeting her. She had also given him her phone number, which was missing one digit. We did not know generally where this school or bus stop was located or how to reach her. So we walked over to a bus stop, found a bus chart and proceded to look for the Chinese characters Kyle had written down on the bus chart. I am proud to say that I found them! Bus 59! Once we arrived at the correct stop, we could not find the kindergarten school anywhere. We could not call the lady, and she was not calling us. Kyle felt bad for dragging me out on this wild goose chase and kept apologizing, but I was enjoying our random adventure. Nevertheless, to make it up to me he treated me to dinner at a Chinese Muslim restaurant. The Muslim restaurants are recognizable by a man wearing a small round white cap standing outside of the restaurant making and pulling fresh noodles. Of course, I had to order these noodles - mian tiao! I ordered a very fragrant and delicious and spicy dish of noodles with meat and vegetables. We talked about past travels, exchanged brief life stories, and talked about where we wanted to travel this year. Vietnam is on both of our lists. Afterwards, I bid adieu to Kyle and found my way to my bus stop. As I walked down the street, I looked around me and took everything in. The sky was dark, but you could still see the clouds sprawled against the night sky because Shenzhen was lit up with signs, lights, and decorative Chinese lanterns. I walked along the sidewalk and reminded myself once again, "You are in China!!!" and even after one month (my monthiversary was yesterday!) excitement rose within me. I like walking anonymously along the streets, speaking as Kyle had said earlier in my own secret language (English), ignoring stares or snapping cameras and feeling no burden to fit in, not completely sure where I am going.

I found Bus 12 and jumped on. And... I took my usual seat along the length of the bus so I could observe the other riders. This time a young woman my age sat directly beside me. She looked so fresh in her white pants and pale pink top, her hair curled neatly carrying her shopping bags. The night air outside was cool and breezy, but the humidity was still causing me to feel sticky and sweaty. The scent of her perfume was clean and a pleasant surprise. I didn't even bring perfume with me, and a teaching coordinator told us it as uncommon for Chinese women to wear perfume.

When I arrived in Mei Shan, I walked leisurely down Mei Shan Jie...my street. I walked past the family run "shite" dumpling place (as we call it) where the dumplings and ban mien (noodles in peanut sauce) are really not shite at all and quite good for their price especially, the massage parlor where they know us, the tea house we have yet to try, the "fake" Seven Eleven (they use the seven eleven stripes and colors on their logo) where we buy ice cream and bottled water, the book store, the many little hair salons and boutiques.

When I walked into our apartment, Serena Joy was making jello shots for our Friday night post-Chinese class get-together at our place tomorrow. I teased her, because she sat on a small stool at the desk/dining table concentrating very hard - "the chemist" at work. A knock at the door....Laura (her chosen English name) our next-door neighbor. She has just come home from work and is wearing a beautiful black chiffon dress and strappy black high heels. She is tiny and sweet and apologizes over her English even though it's fine. We offer her a freshly congealed jello shot from the fridge, and she laughs. I imagine she thinks we are crazy with our three fridges, three microwaves, three televisions, wearing our men's boxer shorts and tee shirts and matching Chinese cartoon headbands, drinking jello shots. In fact, the vision of how we must to look to her made me start to laugh...and then laugh harder and exclaim, "she must think we are so weird!" - which she understood and which also made her laugh. She gave us her business cards, and we realized her English name is not Laura at at all. We had misunderstood her - her name is 'Royal'!

And now I am too tired to write anymore, so I am going to turn up the a/c in my room and go to bed.

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