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I arrived here early evening Friday, having left Yangshuo at 08:10am. I was told the bus ride would take around 4-5 hours from Gulin, so after 6 hours and continuous rural landscapes I had convinced myself I had either taken the wrong bus or had missed the point I was supposed to get off at.
I was sure that I was supposed to get off at the end at a bus station, but as I sat there looking more and more pregnant from my swelling bladder, I went over and over in my mind what Desta from the Buckland office had said. It was vague to say the least, it had not actually been said to get off at the end and that it was a bus station, however I had somehow gotten this impression and was now beginning to feel it was my imagination.
After trying to speak Chinese, unsuccessfully, from my phrase book to the guy across the aisle and showing him my ticket, I was still none the wiser, he just looked at me strangely before turning his back on me to laugh about me with his friend. I wasn't sure whether this was a bad
sign, whether he was laughing because I was supposed to get off an hour ago, or because my Chinese was atrocious. So my only option left open to me was to pray, and I did that over and over. I don't mean get on my knees and pray with my joined hands in the air, for one thing I wouldn't have room in the aisle which was occupied with waste paper bins that they spent the whole journey hacking up into and chucking fag ends in. But with my fingers interlaced in my lap and then in my head I didn't exactly pray to god, but rather begged him, every other word possibly replaced with a desperate expletive.
I was trying to figure out what I was going to do, get off at the next big town and get a bus back. But it was getting late, and I could already guarantee that no one would speak English, so how the hell would I explain what I wanted, and how would I find out which bus, when, how long, when do I get off this time? I was stuffed basically, so it was not an option to sit on
this thought much further. I had to believe in God, and believe I was still on route to where I had to be. Afterall we had hit a lot of possible delays, they had kept stopping to put a load of trade stuff in the belly of the bus, which in itself was an annoyance and inconvenience to me. They removed my bags from there and brought them onto the bus, making it awkward for me to leave the bus at the toilet and food stops. There was always another passenger close to my bags who decided to stay on at these points and therefore I never felt comfortable enough to leave them, hence bursting for the toilet. Luckily I had the foresight to bring some banana chips for the journey so I wasn't too hungry.
I watched every sign avidly, although only about 5% had the Pinyin names on (Western), all others were in Chinese Characters, which I tried to match up to my ticket. Every time I saw large buildings my heart leapt thinking it looked like a big city, only to then pass these random sporadic blocks to realise it was nothing like a city.
Eventually one of these apparitions turned into reality, it was a city at last, and I saw a sign for Lanshan - YEY!!! It was all I could do not to jump up and squeal with joy, but I have learnt that showing your emotions is not the done thing here.
So the bus ride in the end only took 7 HOURS!!! Awesome, the Chinese have absolutely no sense of urgency I have noticed everyday so far, very frustrating when you have places to be or people to meet, or planes to catch.
I like this city, it is small, only 2 major roads, so for once I won't get lost. taking a rickshaw to anywhere within the city cost just 3yuan (under 30 pence).
I feel like a celebrity here, everyone smiles and stares, shouts hello. People talk about you as you pass, everyone wants to drink with you and eat with you, which is lovely if not a little unerving.
I went to buy a chinese sim card the other day and they treated me like royalty, I also got a free gift with the sime card - bet you can't guess what it
is............................have you guessed yet? Nope guess again..................... you won't get it so I will just tell you, a pack of coat hangers!!!! hehehe, laughs aside I really did need them, so that was handy.
People can be so nice here, so complimentary, I keep being told how beautiful I am and how skillfull I am with chopsticks and a lovely speaking voice, I know this is because I am foreign and therefore a novelty, but it is still so nice to hear when you walk into a classroom or past people 'ohhh, so beautiful'.
I have 14 classes a week and they all study the same grade, so I only really have 1 lesson plan to do a week, with slight modifications per class, so this is an easy life, I have tuesdays off as well as the weekends. Basically with lesson plans I do about 11/12 hours per week. For that I get free accomodation, meals and a wage of about 400pounds a month. Nice work if you can get it!!
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Sandi
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looking forward to your next entry Jessica - can you take some pics of your apartment for me to see. Ta Mumxxxxxxxxx