Monday, February 14, 2011

White Guy Juggling

It’s Monday morning here in Zhuhai and I just left Josh at Quality School International of Zhuhai for his first day of school.  I returned to our apartment to wait for a person to arrive and install Internet service.  It is the first time I have been alone in the apartment since we arrived (though Josh has spent many long hours here on his own while I was at orientation meetings) and seemed like a good time to gather my thoughts.

We had a few complications getting here.  Let’s start with a week ago.  Last Monday, the evening before we were leaving, the pipes heading out of our kitchen froze for the first time in the 22 years we have lived in the house.  Nothing like a backed up kitchen sink for a calm evening before departure.  After a visit from our local plumber reporting there was not much we could do other than put a space heater under the kitchen sink and hope for warmer weather, we decided to head to Patrick’s (a restaurant /bar in St. Peter) so Josh could indulge in one last “Fatty Patty Pounder” (a huge burger) before leaving Minnesota.  Tuesday morning, Bob was not feeling well at all, and our good friend Sue, and her sister, Donna, drove us to the airport.  Check in went smoothly, and in due time we boarded a huge 747 in route to Tokyo.  After leaving the gate and heading for the queue for take-off, the plane stopped and the pilot announced, “Ladies and Gentlemen, our flight attendants have found a weapon on the plane.  We will be returning to the gate for further security checks.  Please stay seated and I will keep you informed as I know more.”  And back we went.  We spent about an hour at the gate while police and security agents joined us on the plane and there was much huddling, whispering and head shaking.  A couple was escorted off the plane surrounded by security agents.  Eventually we were asked to take all of our belongings and leave the plane and go through a special security check.  All the checked baggage was removed from the plane.  This all took well over an hour, and then we were asked to re-board.  We don’t know a lot more, other than the fact the couple that was removed from the plane initially had actually found the “weapon” which was some sort of knife in the seat pocket in front of them.  We arrived in Tokyo three hours late, missed our connection to Hong Kong, stayed in a nice hotel in Tokyo, flew to Hong Kong the following evening, spent six hours (12:30 AM – 6:30 AM) in a very nice hotel, and then boarded the Ferry to Zhuhai.

Once again, the immigration agents had difficulty believing that the living, breathing short-haired Josh was the same person as the long-haired Josh on his passport, but eventually convinced, they let us enter China.  

Jessica, from the United International College (UIC) International Education office met us at the Ferry whisked us over to our apartment to “settle-in” (i.e. drop luggage, see how the burners on the stove work, and the hot water works) and then took me to new staff orientation, which I arrived at about two hours late. It was during the first break I realized that neither our American cell phones (with international plans) nor the Chinese phones that had been given to us by friends who worked at UIC last year, worked.  That was the moment I knew I had no way to reach Josh, and he had no way to reach me.  Needless to say this was unsettling.  I was able to borrow an extra phone from Jessica before boarding the shuttle from UIC back to the apartment complex.  It was almost 6:00PM when I got back, and as I was walking from the shuttle stop to the apartment, I saw Josh heading toward me.  He told me he had gotten a little upset when he realized none of our phones worked, but he found the grocery store in the complex, purchased some bread, peanut butter, oreos and a few boxes of Kleenex for the apartment and was fine.  It had been a long day, but I needed a little more than peanut butter and oreos for dinner, so Josh showed me the way to the store, we picked up a few more supplies and settled in for the night.

The next day (Saturday), I went to orientation in the morning then successfully navigated the public bus system back to the apartment, picked up Josh, and took a bus back to the college.  We found the China Mobile near the college, got new sim cards for our China phones, and met up with Charlie, a film teacher from L.A. who is also new staff for spring semester.  Josh and Charlie immediately hit it off.  Later we took the shuttle back to the apartment complex (Charlie lives a few buildings away in the same complex), kicked back in our individual apartments for about an hour, then met to take a shuttle to a major shopping mall area.  Charlie was still in need of a phone that worked in China so we set off to find a China Mobile in the area.  We passed an alley filled with street vendors and realized we were all hungry.  We each ate a bowl of fresh ramen noodles with seasoning, herbs, and peanuts.  Since no one spoke English, we were not really sure of the ingredients we had selected by pointing to various bowls, but it was delicious.  Josh and Charlie were still hungry so we ventured a little further and found a dumpling vendor.  The dumplings had some kind of seasoned chicken inside and Josh was quite sure it was one of the best dishes he had ever eaten.  With filled stomachs we set off to find a phone for Charlie, and a few more necessities (a sheet for Josh’s bed, towels for the bathroom) for our apartment.

Charlie had expressed an interest in seeing Josh juggle, so we bought three oranges from a fruit vender, and Josh started juggling.  The owner of the stand started yelling, and at first I thought he was angry.  But when I turned and saw his face, he was grinning from ear to ear as he shouted.  None of us have enough Mandarin to really know what he was saying but we imagined it was something like “White Guy Juggling!! White Guy Juggling!!”

We found Charlie a phone, a sheet for Josh’s bed, and towels for our apartment (plus everything and anything you could ever need at a huge department store) and headed home.  There is a lot more to tell, but I need to head over to UIC and get my course materials copied so I am ready for class at 8:00 AM tomorrow morning.

It is an interesting city, and it will be an interesting five months.  More soon.

2 comments:

  1. Oh my oh my oh my! What a trip. Glad you have your apartment, phones, food figured out.

    THANKS for posting and taking us along on your trip!!

    Cindy

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  2. Yay Michele - you made it!
    Good to hear from you! I loved hearing you have the basics going already (peanutbutter, oreos, dumplings, film expert, and juggled oranges).
    Your writing is fabulous - stay in touch - you feel sooo far away.

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