Very American day in Chengdu! #american #china #americaninchina (at Chengdu, Sichuan) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp9ZVsFBUB3/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ef7y02eshy9z
Okay, I PROMISE I’ve been meaning to post about how things have been going but I just haven’t had the time or have lacked energy until right about now. SO! Prepare for a looooooong post while I talk about what’s been going on. Also, if you even want to find my posts just about life in china, search the hastag #BftBinChina
Starting way back on December 16th-17th when I arrived in China:
The flight was actually alright, ya know, for a fifteen-hour flight. Well, actually the guy next to me kept trying to infringe on my space so I ended up wrenching my shoulder a bit. I didn’t sleep till near the end of it when I dozed off for about thirty or forty-five minutes during Inception (this after I binge watched about seven hours of the inflight Food Network shows and watched Gone with the Wind which I thought I would fall asleep during but apparently I like it too much to sleep).
I arrived in Shanghai, got my luggage and was able to get to the Ramada I was staying at that night. Got some sleep, went back to the airport to catch my flight to Fuzhou, and…..missed the flight because I was still in security when the gate closed. See in China, when they say take off time, it is the actual time the plane leaves the tarmac, so the gate closes twenty or thirty minutes before then. If you’re in security, they won’t let you through, you have to go back to the counter, change your flight, have them track down your luggage and bring it to you so you can check it in AGAIN, and then go through security again. Luckily there was another flight just an hour later, though I almost ended up changing it to the afternoon flight because they seemed to be taking a long time finding my luggage and bringing it to me.
Kaylee meets first road block: My phone isn’t working. It will not connect to the wifi so I can’t get on WeChat to tell my dad that I missed my flight. I try and buy a sim card and it doesn’t like it. I find the business center of the Shanghai airport, the woman lets me use the phone to call the phone number I have for dad…who doesn’t answer.
I have like five seconds of panic then decide I’ll just keep going and hope for the best. The very, very kind guy at the ticket counter when I recheck my luggage not only assures me I can make the flight but he walks me through the terminal, through the shortest security line, and then power walks me to the gate so I make it. One very short plane ride later and I am in Fuzhou, get my stuff, and head out the arrivals gate.
I don’t see anyone holding a sign for me and I kind of panic again for a bit. I try to get WeChat on my iPad (which is connecting to Wifi) but the verification stuff stumps me (aka, sending a code to the phone that doesn’t work). I then work up the nerve to go to the “Visit Fuzhou!” desk and ask to borrow their phone. Daddy picks up this time, says he’ll call the woman who is supposed to be picking me up, and not ten minutes later she comes rushing up, slightly frantic.
The rest of the day was getting to the apartment, meeting up with Dad (who I haven’t seen in person since August 2016), visiting the school briefly, and just trying to stay awake till bedtime (which kind of worked, I dozed off during the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One).
I spent about a day freaking out and just being overwhelmed to the point of tears. The rest of the week was mildly freaking out every time I had to leave the apartment or school because I was still finding my way around, and was riding a scooter (traffic laws are nonexistent here). But as of today I have gained my confidence, know where pretty much everything I need is, and can get around either on foot or on the scooter.
I am settled in my room, pretty much unpacked (there’s still some clothes that need to be ironed and hung), I have my part of the pantry with food for me, and I often have a cat cuddling with me (dad’s cat, a beautiful boy named Chairman Meow. I usually just call him Kitty).
School and my library:
So the school is Fuzhou Lakeside International School; and for a school that has signs everywhere that says it is an English campus, I haven’t heard much English from the kids and even some of the teachers. But that’s alright, my job is the library and making it useable.
It’s a cute little library, has a couple thousand books (really not that many considering most of them are kids books), some desks, lots of display shelves and some deep cubby like shelves that each can hold two rows of books. As in, someone shelves the books, then pushed them back in the cubby and put ANOTHER row of books in front of the shelved ones. No surprise that when I was pulling books off to sort them (because the sections were basically, picture books, series, classics, and bilinguals) there were books still perfectly in order because no one knew they were there!
Nothing is labeled beyond the library barcode which is on the inside of covers and there is no set place for that, it’s just on the inside cover. No Dewey Decimal numbers for nonfiction books, they were just on the shelves with the other books; and someone had put the Twilight books under classics. Half the space is also closed off to the students because there is a textbook area that needs to be reorganized both in terms of shifting books and shifting shelves to make more room for the main library area.
Luckily when I set up a meeting to discuss needs and goals with my administrator, she fully supports my ideas. When I go back to work on Wednesday (because I worked three days and then we are off ten days for Christmas and Western New Year), labels and a label maker will be waiting so we can start working on those and I will have a tape measure and masking tape to start laying a floorplan, so we can determine what new shelves would suit.
Fuzhou: food, places, and scooters:
Pretty much everyone rides scooters or mopeds and it is not uncommon to see people riding on sidewalks, or going the wrong way on streets and in bike lines, and ignoring red lights to go. You kind of just have to say you’re going and go. It helps that the cars tend to move way slower than at home so your real danger is just from others on scooters. My first three days I almost crashed twice, and took the turn into our drive too steep so the scooter fell over but after those I focused, practiced, and don’t freak out too much unless something drastic happens.
Dad’s apartment is located on the fourteenth floor overlooking West Lake and West Lake Park; the view is spectacular. The building is also conveniently located, we can walk to school in about ten or so minutes, or scoot there in less than that. There are two Walmarts fairly close, dad’s favorite bar is down the street as is a cute little restaurant called Omellete Woods, his Thai place is across the street as is a little convenience store, the bakery 85 C is on the way to work (there is also one in Richardson if you want to try it out) and pretty much around the corner is Three Lanes Seven Alleys.
Sanfang Qixiang (the Chinese name, pronounced Sahnfahn Sheshan) shopping center built over and around an outdoor market from several hundred years ago. The buildings are all meant to look like they would have back then, there are some little kiosk like shops in the main lanes and no scooters are allowed so there’s just a ton of people but less chance of being run over. All kinds of shops are there; food, clothes, bakery, juice, books, and even a Starbucks (more expensive than back home!).
Important: the exchange rate is about 6.5 rmb for 1 US dollar, so I went to the bookstore and for two brand new, shrink wrapped books that are in both English and Chinese I paid 49 rmb, or $7.50. So keep that in mind because I’ve mentioned different food places and I will say this: we eat like kings. We went out to dinner with one of our coworkers who likes to eat as much as dad and I, filled the table with so much delicious food there were leftovers and it was 176 rmb, or $27. Dinner at the Thai restaurant the other day was mango beef that made me swoon, some amazing cod with vegetables and chips, and some pineapple dumpling things: 165 rmb or $25. We went to a Turkish restaurant called Aladdin’s where we ate lamb chops, potato salad, hummus, and soufflé (sorry, I don’t know what that bill was, I was praising the food to the cute waiter).
There is also a foot massage place that dad goes to a lot, and I use the term foot massage loosely. Because what happens is that they first put down a tub of super-hot water with tea in it to soak your feet it, then they have you turn around, so they can give you a shoulder, back, neck, arm and hand massage. THEN they start on your (now red like a lobster) feet and legs. This is an hour-long massage… for 50 rmb or $7.60. Yes, you can get an hour long massage every day for about twenty days for the same amount as an hour-long massage back home in the States.
All in all, I think I’m adjusting well. I get a lot of looks, being a tall, blonde, American woman, lot of people want to take my picture and about half of them do it on the down low. I’m even adjusting alright to living with my father again (which I was worried about because I am an adult. The cat helps, he has abandoned dad for me). One of dad’s friends is going to help me with learning some basic Chinese as right now I can say hello and thank you. Hopefully I’ll make some friends soon so I’m not just hanging out with dad and his friends, though that will probably be slow going as I am still myself (read: homebody).
Two weeks ago, I didn’t think I could make it till summer vacation. Today I’m thinking of going window shopping at scooters, so I can get one painted Batgirl colors and wondering where in China or even the Pan Pacific that I should go for the month-long holiday for Chinese New Year that we get in February.
Lianhuashan Park in Shenzhen, China #china #shenzhen #lianhuashanpark #shenzhenchina #park #americaninchina #citylife #smog #damnthisisabigcity #chinatrip Follow me on Instagram at vwdoc (at Lianhuashan Park)
