We finally loaded the small taxi with all five of us.  Now, we are larger than most Chinese, make that all Chinese!  In fact, no offense to my dear student mission team, but we are larger than most Americans (and I include me in that description).  We put one of us in the front and four of us in the back seat.  We were packed in there like a clown car!  About four blocks from the apartment, as soon as we were off campus, the taxi driver got out and indicated that we had to get out!  He did not want to take us any farther!  I called Amy on the phone and again handed the phone to the driver.  After a lot of animated and loud Chinese gibberish he handed the phone back and she said he could only take no more than four of us and that one or more of us would have to get out and take another taxi.  I took the girls with me, hailed another taxi and we headed to what seemed like a far-away destination across town.  The train station was so far away from the buildings of the city there was actually vacant land in sight.  We arrived and the driver let us out to still walk about 400 yards to the terminal building.

The new train station was huge and beautiful.  It was a newly constructed station just to service the new High-Speed trains that were beginning to be put into service connecting selected cities across China.  We were traveling to Guangzhou.  Guangzhou is the third largest city in China, so service to and from that city was very available.  When we arrived we had no student hosts with us. Not knowing where to go and what to do, I went through the terminal seating area showing my ticket and asking aloud if anybody spoke English.  Finally, a business-suit-dressed adult woman showed me her ticket, which seemed to indicate that she was on the same train and that we could just follow her.   We had about an hour to wait so we sat and I tried to thank her in words – but nothing seemed to be getting through.  She just smiled and kept waving her hands to watch and follow her.  We stepped across the aisle to get some breakfast snack food to take on the train with us.  I bought what I thought was apple juice in a non-refrigerated bottle. It turned out to be an apple-flavored milk!  It was really pretty tasty, but the recurring thought that what I perceived to be a milk product was bought off the shelf, in a non-refrigerated section of a convenience snack stand, just couldn’t make me finish it.

The time to board train was upon us.  The woman got up waved to us and we followed.  The platform had different locations to stand according to our assigned seat number.  She looked at our tickets and pointed to the signs on the floor where we were to stand.  Fortunately, numbers look alike in English and Chinese.  I’ve always heard that math is called the universal language, and now I know why.  We boarded the train in the second-class car. It was laid out much like a very nice airplane, with individual recliner seats, pull down trays and foot rests.  It was new and nice.  But the most amazing thing was the speed at which that bullet travelled!  There was an LED sign at the doorway to the car that constantly updated the time and speed.  It also had scrolling words in English and Chinese to inform passengers of the next stop, and more.  348 KM/hour was our top speed during the one-hour-forty-five minute trip.  That’s a little over 216 miles per hour!  WOW – I don’t think I’ve ever traveled that fast!  

One of the consistently fun parts of our adventure trip has to be the looks and stares we get from the Chinese people that pass us by.  The guys in our group are big.  Two of us have beards, one of the girls has blonde hair, and the other girl has red/auburn colored hair.  All are real anomalies in this land.  Some Chinese people pull out their cameras to take a quick picture thinking we don’t see them doing so.  Others stop and actually ask if they can take a picture of us, or to just say hello!  We usually surprise them with a warm and hearty Chinese greeting of, “Ni Hao” (Hello), and “Ni Hao Ma” (How are you today?).  About one hour into this trip a sweet, pretty looking eight-year-old Chinese girl came up to us and said in very clear English, “Hello, how are you doing today?”  Her mother had sent her back from the front of the car to us so that she could practice her English.  When we responded with handshakes and smiles she waved for the others to come up and see us as well.  About four other students ranging in age from 5 to 10 all came running back from the front of the car to greet us.  We laughed, talked and had our pictures made with them. A Mom finally came back to thank us and took the children back to their seats.  For me, it was really a special exchange of culture.  They were so adorable.  I wish we all had the universal, communicative, social skills of a precocious child. 

We arrived at our destination.  I called Ye Qing, also known as Mia, one of my Chinese Harding students who had agreed to meet us in her hometown.  After not finding her and much searching and discussion, she informed us that we had gotten off at the wrong station.  She was across town at another station waiting for us.  We tried to find a way to get to her location.  The real adventure was just beginning.  By now I had learned to call a Chinese friend on the phone, hand the phone to an unsuspecting and friendly looking sort and let them discuss the situation and then have the phone handed back to me. My Chinese phone service has become a translation service! Mia said the best thing to do was for us to take a taxi to where she was located.  When we found a car service that would take all of us, I called Mia to tell her what we had found and that the price was ¥200. She said, “Let me talk to the driver.”  After some discussion the phone was handed back to me where Mia announced that she had negotiated a better rate of only ¥180.   Off we went, only to find that the driver got lost and couldn’t find the other train station. After way too much time he finally pulled up to a city bus station and indicated to us that we should get out and that we should all take the bus to the train station that he couldn’t find.  I called Mia from the bus stop, told her what happened and then I handed the phone to a woman at the bus station that appeared to be nice enough to maybe help us.  When the phone was handed back to me I discovered what bus number was for a route to the train station where Mia was waiting.  We boarded the Number 185 bus and thought we would be there soon.  About an hour later we were worried because we were not there yet.  We were worried that we might be on the wrong bus.  I called Mia then handed the phone to a nearby passenger. When I received the phone back I discovered that we were on the right bus, but going away from the station not towards the station.  And, that if we waited for it to eventually circle-back to the station it could be as much as a 2-3 hour ride!  So we got off at the next stop, hailed two more taxis, (because we could not all fit into one) called Mia, handed the phone to the driver(s) and off we went again looking for the meeting point.  Fortunately the lead taxi driver knew exactly where to take us. He spoke to the other driver and one followed the other to our point of destination where I got out of the car.  I finally got a glimpse of my student, Mia. We ran at each other and hugged, laughed and hugged some more!  I was in Guangzhou, China with one of my Chinese Harding students for which I had been teaching English back in Searcy!  The whole episode up until this point felt like an episode of the Amazing Race and we had just crossed the finish line to find out that we could survive a few more days in China!  Mia had started to worry about us so she had called her mother who had joined her to meet us.  After all the exhaling and introductions, we went to lunch.  I was ready to eat in the Guangdong province where I had heard the food was a little milder than the cuisine of the Hunan province.

We went to a close and relatively fast food restaurant but still had a choice of a dish with cooked beef, pork, or chicken along with rice and vegetables.  We discussed the plan for me to separate from my student team members, as I was to stay for two days in that area and they were going to go on to Hong Kong!  We found an ATM, drew out some money, bought their train tickets, pointed the way to the gate and platform, and they were off.  I just prayed I would see them back at our appointed rendezvous in 48 hours or so.

For some reason Mia and I had a little trouble hailing a taxi.  She thought maybe because I was with her that the Taxi drivers would assume that neither of us spoke Chinese and they did not want to deal with us.  We finally found a ride and she told the driver in her native Cantonese, not Mandarin, where we needed to go and we were off.  The hotel was only a block or so from the apartment building where she lived with her parents.  After she helped me with the language barrier and checking in, she went home and I took the opportunity to take a shower and a nap before I had to meet her back again in two hours or so with her parents.  I was in for an evening of dining like I had never before experienced! 

About 6:30 that evening I heard a knock at my door. It was Mia and her mother.  Her mother wanted to come to my room to make sure it was good enough for me and that the services for which she had arranged were up to her guest’s standards.  The room was excellent, very comfortable and lots of amenities.  Chief among my comforts was a TV that had English channels where I could finally watch some world and local news.   When she had satisfied her standards we left to meet Mia’s father who was waiting for us in their family car. 

Her parents spoke no English at all, but somehow we acknowledged how incredible it was to meet each other, and that was without Mia translating for us.  I was told that the restaurant we were headed to was a seafood restaurant where they like to take their out of town guests.   Because it was raining so hard, Mia’s dad let us out at the door and the three of us went inside.  The place was amazing.  The building was several stories tall, but it was all restaurant.  It had numerous small dining rooms where each dinner party had their own private rooms.  Mia, her Mom, and I headed towards a very large room that had lots of live fish and other seafood creatures.  The process was to walk through and pick out your meal.  A staff member followed with a clipboard writing down what we thought looked good. Another would take the delicacies as we selected them and send them back to the kitchen to be cooked and delivered to our private dining room at the appropriate time.  The order room was huge with everything that was on the menu cooked and displayed.  It was about the size of a medium sized grocery store.  They had every kind of seafood and fish, crabs, lobster, and a lot of exotic food such as snakes and frogs.  They even had a crocodile. I saw them cut off its head while it was still alive, and then slice it up into steaks for another customer more adventuresome than me!  They kept asking me what I wanted and I just kept trying to communicate that I wanted their traditional food that their family would order and that I like everything.  Fortunately, they did not order anything too exotic.  However, they did order way too much food for the four of us (at least for that evening alone). I know I looked like an American tourist, but it was so different and unbelievably unique, that I was busy taking pictures as much as I could

When it was time to be seated we went up several escalators where, upon arriving at the appropriate floor, we were greeted and escorted to our private room by a beautiful uniformed hostess who was to stand at our door the rest of the evening to make sure to supply us with whatever we needed.  The food was good, plentiful and needless to say, fresh!  The discussion was loud and continuous, even though I only understood when Mia spoke in English and even then I had to strain to comprehend much of what she was trying to tell me.  I think she may have regressed a bit in her English skills since she’s been back home.  She explained that she had spoken almost no English in three weeks since leaving the states.  The wait staff was particularly attentive and noticed that I had my camera, so they took my camera and took lots of photos of us as a group for me.  Toward the end of the meal Mia’s mother pulled out a gift and through her daughter’s translation told me that she had heard of Donna’s kindness and mine towards her daughter a few months earlier, (Mia stayed with us for a few nights at our house in Searcy at Thanksgiving), and that she and her husband were forever grateful for me taking care of Mia when she was so far away from them in America.  The gift was a beautiful miniature Chinese Screen, made of wood and hand painted glass.  It is stunning, to say the least!  The Chinese teachers have such a different relationship with their students.  They engage them only in a very strict manner and have no relationship with them outside the classroom.  So much so, that when any one of us simply extends a simple kindness towards their child they are absolutely in awe that we would do such a thing.  The fact that I traveled to China to visit my Chinese students was just beyond comprehension to them, sometimes even bringing them to the point of tears and emotion to express their gratitude.   It was very humbling.  I knew that it was not me, but the Father using me to reach them in a unique way.

After dinner, I was exhausted.  It was about 9:00 p.m. and they wanted to give me the driving tour of the city to show me the beautiful city lights, the Riverwalk and the most famous stretch of shopping in Guangzhou, “Beijing Street.”  Beijing Street was an outdoor mall several blocks long that was closed to motor traffic.  It also ran the same course where the old walls of the cities were found during other dynasties.  There were several displays of the old wall and lots of historic plaques in Chinese and English.  There were also a lot of colorful, red, paper lanterns hanging from the trees.  It was packed with people, as is all of China, and the atmosphere was festive, spirited and loud!  Mia’s father dropped the three of us off and he went on home.  I did not know at the time that at the end of this stretch of street was only one block from my hotel and a couple of blocks from their home apartment.  So, after another hour or so, they walked me back to the hotel, we said our goodbyes, and we went our separate ways.  I came upstairs and had a very comfortable bed and room to retire in for the evening.  What a day it was!

As I was getting caught up with my journal I was excited, because Alice was coming by at Noon to pick me up to go across town to her student’s family’s home for lunch.  She arrived on time and we shared an umbrella, because I had left mine in Jing Jing’s father’s car.  We walked to the far campus gate where we caught a bus that was crowded and dirty.  Everybody was staring at us.  Here I was, this middle aged, American man, with a young and pretty Chinese girl.  They weren’t discreet at all.  They stood up and pointed me out to others so the rest of the bus could see us.  I might have been a bit uncomfortable but I had been told this would happen long before I got here and it has occurred everyday so far.  I just smiled at them occasionally and waved to acknowledge that I did in fact see them and yes, I wasn’t Chinese!  We got to our stop and still had to walk a couple of blocks in the rain to a gated complex of tall apartment buildings.  When we started to climb the stairs I asked, “What floor do they live on?”  Alice did not want to tell me and I thought, “Oh no, this could be a long hike.”  What about the elevator?  There wasn’t one. When I inquired again she simply said it was the top floor but still would not tell me how many floors were in the building.  So I asked her, knowing her English may be OK but not perfect, “What is their apartment number?” “817,” she replied quickly!  “Oh,” I said, “the eighth floor!”  “How did you know?” she asked in amazement. I told her I am a pretty clever American and that I tricked her.  She laughed when I explained to her what I had done. These were not just a few steps to the next floor, but a large set of steps with a landing between each floor to make two sets of stairs for each floor.  I later realized why.  The apartments were two floors each. At least the apartment we were going to had two floors.

We met the family and they were really delightful.  They seemed too young to have a daughter in high school but they were all smiles when I arrived.  They ushered us in, had us sit, and got us something to drink. Alice was busy talking in both languages for our introductions.  They also came back with some napkins for me to wipe my face because they saw that I was sweating profusely from the stair climbing.    

It was going to be a few minutes for them to finish preparing the meal and the table so Alice suggested that the student, whose name was Lilly, show me around their apartment.  Alice had been hired to teach Lilly English and to help her study.  Lilly wasn’t doing particularly well in her academics and this was causing a lot of family stress.  She seemed particularly shy and spoke almost no English at first.  I don’t think me being there was something she wanted.  It was more her parents and Alice that wanted this meeting.  Alice explained that Lilly was embarrassed by her lack of English skills, but soon I had convinced her that I enjoyed being there and I wanted her to feel comfortable around me.  

As the tour went on, Lilly seemed to start relaxing a bit.  She showed me her room and that she had two other rooms.  Lilly had one room for sleeping, one for her study, and one just for her artwork and painting.  Lilly, I discovered, was a graphic artist and wanted to go into advertising!   She showed me some of her drawings and other graphic design work, including some ads for magazines that she had created just because she wanted to.  The work was great and she was only 17!  Lilly was a Creative! A free spirit!  That was the real issue with her studies.  Her parents wanted Lilly to be an accountant or something as boring and God-awful as that, but she was a Creative!  It didn’t take me being in their house ten minutes to figure out what her parents and Alice could not.  I tried to explain it to Alice but she has the mindset of the Chinese and could not comprehend what I knew was going on here.  Alice knew I worked in advertising and she thought I could simply tell her to be a better student.  Well I could, but I’m not sure Alice or her parents would have liked the direction I might have sent her studying.  I explained to Lilly, sometimes through Alice, that I was much the same as she was but my creative skills were different from hers.  I went on to say that I teach creative people back in America.  When she understood what I was telling her and what I had done in my work in advertising and teaching she lit up like the morning sun.  After that we were friends! She seemed to be delighted to have me there!

It was time to eat.  I asked where they wanted me to sit (as I had been taught to do), and they gave me the premier seat at the table.  The food was very good.  They had fish soup, cucumber vegetable salad (cooked of course), and a few other cooked vegetable dishes.  They prepared and served about six dishes in all. They also had a meat dish that looked like beef.  I asked Alice what it was and she told me I had to taste it before she would tell me.  “Oh no,” I thought, “what could this be?”  I tried it.  It was Liver!  It was the best liver I had ever eaten.  Alice explained that she heard that most Americans do not like liver but she did not want the parents to know that fact.  I assured her that I liked this, and that it tasted good. I said to my hosts, in my best Chinese, “Hun-How-Che!”  (It’s delicious).  I’m sure I must have said it funny because they laughed, but seemingly knew what I was trying to say.  I had started writing down many familiar Chinese phrases in a little notebook that I carried with me at all times, and I was actually looking at my notebook when I said this.  Maybe that is what they were laughing about?

After lunch we took some photos and then Lilly, Alice and I went to Lilly’s study room to have an English class.  In a few minutes, Alice’s mother brought us each a fruit flavored milk to drink.  It was in a small container and again was pretty tasty, so I downed it pretty quickly.  

We continued on with the English class, going through pronunciation of the alphabet and through vowels and consonants.  I then wanted her to read some English aloud.  Alice pulled out an English workbook that they were working through.  It was boring!  She did OK reading, well not really, but I told her she did.  Alice objected!  She did NOT do OK, and I should not tell her she did.  I tried to tell Alice that I like to encourage more than criticize in my teaching style and that’s what I did back at Harding, especially with my Chinese students.  The copy in the English workbook we were reading made reference to downloading something from the Internet.  She had a computer on her desk so I put aside the workbook, which Alice did not like me doing, and I called up my www.image-communications.com website and had Lilly read pages from that instead.  I was able to give her some text to read right off my website that explained the world of advertising to her at the same time.  Alice kept telling me that wasn’t in the lesson plan.  Alice was frustrated, Lilly was delighted, and I was in heaven!  I thought Lilly was about to tell Alice that she could leave now, but she didn’t.  I explained to Alice that sometimes teaching isn’t just textbook learning but finding the right combination of a student’s interest from which to read and learn.  

When Alice saw how much Lilly enjoyed reading through my website about advertising, she was starting to comprehend what I was doing.  She said, “I get it now! That’s why you are a professor!” I’ve had my Image Communications website for about eight years now, and I’m not sure it had ever been more valuable to me than it was at that very moment!  

It was getting time for me to go and I wanted to thank my hosts and say goodbye.  But they were taking a Chinese nap.  I certainly did not want to wake them and I did not want to leave without thanking them.  Hmm, what to do? So, I asked Lilly to help me write a note of thanks that she could read to her parents later.  We took the time to write a simple note of thanks and appreciation, and I made Lilly promise to read it to her parents IN ENGLISH.  Alice thought I was a genius!  Alice told me that she learned more today from watching me than she had in all of her classes.  With that coming from Alice, and Lilly seemingly enjoying what we were doing, I just thought, “I really LOVE this job!”

As we were leaving, Lilly’s dad was up and headed back to work.  He had just come home from his job at the bank for our lunch and the Chinese session of afternoon rest.  He said a quick goodbye and was out the door before us.  We walked back to the bus stop in the pouring rain.  We got back to the far gate of campus and it was raining even harder by then.  Alice’s umbrella that we were sharing just wasn’t big enough.  I told her that I would like to go and buy a new umbrella.  She said she needed to go to the supermarket to make an exchange and that if I went along I could get another umbrella.  I said, “OK, but we’re taking a taxi both ways– and I’m paying for it.”  I knew Alice didn’t have much money, so I insisted.  She relinquished and we hailed a taxi. 
 
The Supermarket was the same one I had been to a couple of times but it’s always a unique Chinese experience.  Alice went to the cosmetics department and pulled out a receipt from her purse and a product that was purchased about three months ago that she did not feel was performing up to proper standards.  She and about four other employees had a heated discussion.  First with one, then another, then two or more, etc. I could tell that they did not want to make good on the purchase the way Alice wanted them to.  They took turns trying to convince her.  I finally asked what the issue was.  Alice explained that the product had gone bad, but the store policy was exchanges had to be made within seven days of the purchase.  It had been three months and the product was half consumed.  Alice asked me to speak to them and she would translate and I said, “No, and I agree with the store.  It’s been too long.”  She tried to argue with me that she was the consumer and if they wanted her business in the future they should make the exchange.  I agreed, but told her she would have to weigh that decision to do without the store as much as they would have to decide if they wanted to do without her business, and that ultimately it would hurt her more than them to do so.  I thought, “The free enterprise market economy is at work here, at least in Alice’s mind!”  She sighed a bit of frustration and we went on to buy my umbrella.  On the way out of the store I stepped off a step onto the sidewalk and fell flat on my face in a large puddle of water.  Somehow the umbrella now seemed a bit superfluous, as I was wet from head to toe!  Alice was worried that I was hurt, but I assured her that I was more embarrassed than physically hurt.  We hailed a taxi and finally got back to my apartment where she continued to walk on to her dormitory.

I had another appointment coming up soon, so I went in and cleaned up and changed out of my wet clothes into something more suitable for presentation.  My meeting was soon upon me and I had a call from Xiaoya, the young lady that had helped me to haggle the price when I ordered my new bifocal glasses.  She had earlier told me that the glasses were ready for pick up.  When she called we agreed to simply meet at the store and then go to the school-dining hall to eat, her treat on the meal.  I picked up my glasses and have been showing off my new style to the other Americans, more to brag about the $22 pair of glasses than the actual new style, which I also like a lot! I think I’m going to go back soon to order some prescription sun glasses.

The dining hall was really underwhelming.  The food wasn’t that bad, but it had a lot of bones and scrap parts cooked into almost every dish.  I pointed to what I wanted, they scooped me some in a bowl, added some rice at the end and Xiao used her card to scan the payment.  I hope it wasn’t too much.  She didn’t seem to mind paying. I tried to engage her in conversation as much as we could as we ate, but I could tell she was not herself and seemed extremely depressed.  I kept probing and what I heard wasn’t pretty. But I didn’t know how much of the issues she was experiencing was just 19 year old college girl frustrations or real problems.  Either way, I thought she needed some serious counseling at least from a loving sister type mentor.  Later I mentioned this to Mary and Sarah, one of our American student team members, who is a social work major.  Sarah wants me to introduce her so she can at least give her the benefit of another college girl listening to her.  I agreed that would be a great idea and I am attempting to set this up.

It was time for me to make my Chinese radio station debut!  Yes, the campus has a campus radio station and I was to be interviewed that evening in a live program that is broadcast weekly in English.  I was supposed to meet my student host Charles at my apartment to be escorted to the station for which he was also on the staff.  I invited Xiao to come along and she called Charles (or so I thought) to tell him that she would walk me to the station.  When we got there we discovered that the one she thought was meeting me and the one I was supposed to meet were two different people.  No problem, Charles was there after he decided that I had forgotten and just went on to the station.  But my best radio voice debut had to be postponed for another week because they had double booked the programming.  Today was Children’s Day in China and they had a few children in the studio to be interviewed instead of me.  Actually they wanted to do both and take some time from the children and I said, “No, just have me back another day before I leave.”  So we made an appointment for next Tuesday night, same time. Stay tuned to this same channel for an update!

As I returned to my apartment I wanted to tell somebody about my incredible day.  I knew that the team and the other English teachers were all at the Gearhart’s for Chorus practice.  We were to sing at the Senior English majors graduating party on Thursday evening two days from now.  They needed another bass so I joined the group and we sang, “Our God He is Alive,” and “A Beautiful Life.”  After we were satisfied that what was coming out of our hearts and mouths wasn’t going to improve any more, we dismissed for the night.  I went home still excited about my unbelievable experiences of the day.

Sleep just wasn’t ready to surrender because I soon had a call from Edwin asking if I was still up.  I said, “Yes, because the phone was ringing so I got up to answer it!” I was being invited up to the Myers’ to meet their Chinese Study group.  This group consisted of three that I had previously met and one I had not.  It was made up of Peter, Faye, and Esther, all of whom I had met before.  New to me was Irene.  Peter was a brother and the others were considering becoming family members as well.  They meet every Tuesday evening.  They wanted me to teach them something from our favorite book.  But it was almost 10:00 p.m. and I graciously told them perhaps some other time?  “When?” they inquired.  After checking my schedule that now seemed to be getting fuller and more confusing we made an appointment for next Wednesday evening. They eventually left and as I was leaving I just looked at the Myers and was amazed at the good they were doing with this work!

Before I went back to bed I checked my e-mail one more time and discovered the following message:

Dear Steve,
With deepest gratitude I write you here these few lines. Thanks for reading Bible to me. I have learned something from that. I'm a little bit shy when I speak English and I made some mistakes. Thanks your smile, it dissolved my embarrassment.  I want to make friends with you and learn more. 

Best wishes for you!
Carol

I went back to bed and slept all night but had no regrets about doing this for the second time in one evening.