After 30 hours of traveling, I finally arrived in Pingxiang City. We stopped to get lunch before heading to the college so we ended up not getting to our rooms until around 4pm. Before I get too ahead of myself, let me tell you how I got here.
Mom was there to see me off in Medford and I went straight to LAX. I had a 5 hour layover there which had the possibility of not being terrible, but was ended up being just slightly bearable. After I checked by bags (and was surprised at not having to pay extra for the weight) I decided to go to my gate. I passed all of these restaurants on my way there thinking there would be plenty to eat on the other side. Boy, was I wrong. There was a deli where I could have purchased a salad for $10 so I decided to just wait. I passed some time making phone calls and talking with some people. Then it got too late so I thought I would try my luck with free WiFi. No such luck. Damn you LA. I had to pay for the internet, but it helped me pass the last little bit of time I had before takeoff.
We had to take a shuttle out to the plane as it was too huge to come up to the gate – Boeing 777. As per my usual, I fell asleep before take off at midnight and woke up around 1am just in time for dinner. I then promptly went back to bed and slept until 1pm when we had breakfast. They kept the cabin dark until then so it was easy to sleep. It helped that there was an empty seat next to me…and I am wee so I fit in airplane seats pretty well. 1pm west coast time is 4:30 am China time…hence the breakfast. I am not sure why there were no other meals. The trip was 15 hours in total to get to Guangzhou. We first flew up towards Alaska, then over and down. I figured we would jus t go straight across the ocean but apparently I have no clue.
In LAX, my bags were checked through to Changsha so I thought I just had to take care of me at Guangzhou. Of course I don't realize my error until I have gone all the way through customs and am getting my boarding pass at the ticket counter. I then have to go all the way back through and get my bags. I totally confused the customs man who spoke no English and, strangely, didn't remember seeing me 10 minutes before. The people at the ticket counter were confused too when I returned with a boarding pass and bags to check. I know I wasn't the only American on my flight, but seriously? We are talking a 5 minute attention span here. Disaster avoided, I got to my gate okay. I did see a McDonalds at the airport, but I didn't partake. Little did I know that was the last I would see of America.
The flight from Guangzhou to Changsha was only 50 minutes and this time I was the only American. There was a woman on my flight that had been on the LA flight so we talked a little. She was from China and had no idea what Pingxiang College or Pingxiang City was for that matter. When she told me this, I tried to not panic…this can happen in America too…this place DOES exist, etc…
Bob and another man from the college met me at the airport. They were picking up another woman who will be teaching at Pingxiang as well. I am slightly confused there as she is older, Japanese, and speaks so little English we couldn't discuss where we had just flown in from. The irony comes in the fact that she too will be teaching English. Pingxiang City is only 140km from the airport but it took us a good 3 hours to get there. For the last stretch we were driving on a road that was torn apart and had huge bumps and potholes in it. Apparently it is the National Highway and it is going to be fixed, it just has to wait until after a new freeway is built. Apparently there was a typhoon in this area about 5 days ago so the destruction along the road was still amazing. Lush green rice fields were bordered by piles of bricks that use to be workers houses. Bob said many of the houses and business that were next to the road the government tore down so they can widen the highway to 50 meters.
Pingxiang City was damaged a bit from the typhoon as well. It rained for about 30 minutes as well as we were coming into town and that was enough to flood most of the streets with about a foot of water. At the place where we had lunch, I was able to experience the non-Western style toilet. It is basically a porcelain basin buried in the floor. I wasn't too sure what to do with it, so I made do. I am still debating whether or not Chinese women pee while standing.
ANYWAY, back to the streets. With their terrible condition in mind, here are some things that do not seem to matter while driving them: seat belts, right of way, yellow lines that divide traffic directions, safety space cushions (4 seconds or more), bike helmets, detours, and speed limits. Some additional things that make navigating the roads exciting would have to be the fact that there are no rules governing what cannot be on the roads so there are pedestrians crossing highways, people walking along the road, bicycles, 3 people per motorbike, rickshaws pulling carts full of goods, and goodness only knows what else.
We quickly drove through the campus to our apartments. The campus definitely wasn't as pretty as it looked online (as shown in previous blog entry) but I am not sure if that is due to the recent typhoon or just the passage of time. Standing outside, we were told to pick which floor we wanted. This was without looking at the rooms so I picked the 2nd. Not ground floor so I didn't have to listen to people in the courtyard but also not too high up as my suitcase was heavy. The apartment was…not what I was expecting. I took a video of how it was when I got here for your benefit. Bob said they were supposed to clean but because of the typhoon many of the workers were not on campus. I suppose this is understandable, but the typhoon was 5 days ago, no one has been living here since June, and they have known we were coming. I ended up spending most of my first night cleaning and putting some stuff away.
Oh yes…my fellow non-smokers will love this: they smoke everywhere! There is an old man who I think is like a landlord here and he came into my apartment and sat on my bed and smoked at least 2 cigarettes. I wanted to cry. At least in the car I got them to roll down the window and at the restaurant my companions were nice enough to not smoke in our room. Totally gross though!
Dinner was in the students' dining hall and wasn't too bad. Yes, every meal I have had, including on the plane, had rice. Now I think I am going to head off to my rock hard bed and try to get some sleep.
NOTE: I cannot upload my videos to YouTube as they are too big and I have no video editing software. I am attaching them to the email.
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