| After eating dinner at the restaurant across from the train station, our guide put us on a sleep train that was heading for a city called Hefei (pronounced huh-fay), but he didn't come with us. We were going there to meet his sister, who was the main contact person of the one who sent us to China. We went to our assigned bunk beds, and sometime later, a police officer came through and checked our passports and visas. He couldn't speak English, but it was easy to know what he was looking for since he only came to Nathan and I. The train ride was about eight hours, and lasted until early the next morning. Shortly after we woke up, a young girl who was in our cabin started talking to Nathan. I was surprised at how friendly she was to him. She gave him her phone number and asked him to call her sometime. In America, I think the "Don't talk to strangers" rule would have been in effect. I learned quickly that people are not so strange to each other in China. There is more of a sense of unity, and less focus on individuality. We got off the train in Hefei, and were greeted by a young woman named Julia who was wearing a beautiful red traditional Chinese clothing. She was in charge of watching after us while Nathan and I were in Hefei. The three of us got in a taxi and headed for the hotel we were supposed to stay in. The ride there seemed like complete chaos. There were other taxis driving all over the road swerving around each other, as well as people with push carts and three-wheeler taxis that were much slower. We honked our way through whoever or whatever was in our way on the streets, sometimes driving towards oncoming traffic. It reminded me of a high-speed chase scene in an action movie; but I later o found out that that is how people usually drive there, and that it actually works quite well. I remember looking out the taxi window at exotic billboards that were displayed on the sides of buildings we drove by, thinking that I'm actually on the other side of the world from my home, but it still wasn't a shock for some reason. We arrived safely at International Peace Hotel, one of the biggest and most expensive hotels in the city. Our host was very hospitable for reserving a room for us. I felt like I didn't deserve such kind treatment. After we checked in, Julia took us to meet our contact person in a restaurant nearby. Her name was Sally, and she had a very bright and shining smile on her face. I never would have thought she had a secret hiding behind her face. She told us what the plan was, when we were going to start teaching and where. There were two summer camps waiting for us. One was in a city called Anqing (pronounced an-ching) and another in Xuan Cheng (pronounced shuen-chung). But we had several days to stay in Hefei before we had to leave. Julia took us by bus to the bank to exchange currency, and then to the temple market near the center of the city. Near the bus stop we got off at, there was a large circular bridge hovering over a four-way intersection on one of the main streets. There were stairs that led from each corner of the intersection up to the circular bridge where many people crossed the street in every direction. There was no other way for pedestrians to cross. Only bicyclists and motor vehicles could move freely underneath the bridge. I don't know what it was about Hefei, but I had such a great feeling about the place while looking down the road through the columns of buildings on either side from on top of the bridge. It felt like that was the place to be in China, although others have told me there is nothing special about it. We arrived at the temple market, which was an open-air marketplace that sold everything from electronics to clothing at low and negotiable prices. The reason they call it the temple market is because everyone built their shops in a pattern like a maze around a tower in the center, which was once a place of worship for Buddha and other similar deities. One thing that I thought was unusual was when I saw a very small boy peeing in the middle of one of the walkways of the marketplace. No one seemed to take much notice except me. I don't think there are any rules against little children doing things like that, but maybe some punishment would be available for adults who try the same thing. Most families don't use diapers for their babies, and just have pants or shorts with holes in the bottom, cheap, but risky. As we walked through the temple market, I noticed many people asking for money lying down on carpets on the side of some of the walkways. Some of them appeared to be in serious need of assistance, because they had some deformed body parts, and were missing them in some cases. I helped them whenever I could, and also wondered how these people survive. But some people would try to dirty up their children and have them collect money that they didn't need, but I didn't find that out until much later. Julia kept telling us to protect our money from thieves while walking through the dense crowd. We went shopping for DVDs, and were surprised to find some American movie productions that hadn't even been released on DVD in America yet, and they were in good quality, so I heard. But about one year later, the government started strongly enforcing the law to banish the sales of those DVDs, since they are illegal. Julia then took us to a tower-like restaurant with four levels. It was built upwards instead of outwards. At first, I was a little bothered by the service, because several waitresses would stand nearby -- hardly moving -- after serving the food and watch the customers while they were eating. They would notice everything that the customer needed right away and do something about it immediately. They also noticed when I would drop food on the floor because of my poor skills with the chopsticks, and chuckle to each other shyly. After experiencing this kind of service several times, I began to understand that this was exactly the kind of service that I've always wanted because they were always so quick to serve the customer, and they were usually friendly and polite whether or not they could speak my language. A couple of days passed, and then it was time to leave Hefei. A man named Daler was on his way from Anqing to pick up Nathan and I and bring us back there for the first summer camp. He showed up at our hotel on the morning of the third day in Hefei in a minivan with several young people. We waved goodbye to Julia and Sally from inside the van and rode off to Anqing. Daler is an experienced teacher who likes to hire foreign teachers at his summer camps. With him were a young man named Jackie, a young woman named Summer, and a little girl from South Korea named Candy. Candy was such a shy little girl who looked like she had never opened her mouth to speak. She was the shyest girl I had ever seen. There was also a driver named Mr. Wang, an extremely humble man who couldn't speak English. We were all introduced to each other, and Nathan quickly became well acquainted with Daler. Summer kept offering me some kind of dried squid snack from a small bag, and it tasted delicious. I wasn't used to such kindness that I thought maybe she liked me and wanted to marry me! I had it wrong. I didn't know this, but she and Candy were talking in Korean about how they were scared of me because I wasn' talking as much as everyone else. I told Nathan that I felt like we were leaving our safe haven. |
| China dispatch/Andrew Gramling The journey continues |
 |
 |