Journal Entry #9: Saturday, May 22, 2010

Saturday morning and it was raining, and then it rained it some more, and then it poured!  I thought this was a good time to stay in and do my laundry.  The washing machine in the apartment is very small and can only do a few items at a time.  But I worked my way through my first week’s-worth of clothes and also washed my bed linens.

I took this opportunity to e-mail and call my Harding Chinese students that were home for the summer to catch up with them and make arrangements to visit them.  I spoke with Jessica, Xuan and Mia agreed to meet them next Friday.  I think I will be staying two nights with Jessica or Mia or one night with each.  I told them I would buy my train tickets and let them know when I would arrive so they can pick me up.  

Guangzhou is a very big and is the third largest city in China.  I’ve been told it’s very confusing and crazy, especially for a foreigner with no Chinese language skills to speak of.  About 10:00 a.m. I thought it wasn’t too early to call one of my Chinese students for some assistance.  I called Cindy, the Ping-Pong player, and caught her in a study hall on campus.  The campus classrooms act as study hall rooms when they are not being occupied otherwise.  Because most of the dormitories have 4-6 students in one room, there is little room for desks and good study environment, so the students simply go to an empty classroom to study.  The study halls have some very strict quiet rules: no phone calls. So Cindy stepped out into the hallway to talk and I asked her if she and another student would accompany our Harding team to the train station so that we could buy tickets to Guangzhou and Hong Kong next weekend.  She seemed delighted that we would even ask.  Cindy said that she and Mimzy would come and get us at 3:00 p.m. to take us to the train station.

At 3:00 p.m., Me, Cindy, Mimzy, Will, Daniel, and Carey (Sarah decided to stay home and cook some muffins with Mary) headed to town.  We took the number 24 bus to the train station.  The bus fare was only ¥1, which is about .14 cents American.  The ride was amazing because even though we never left Hengyang we traveled to parts of the city we had not yet seen.  It was like traveling to another town.  The traffic was horrendous and the driver was crazy.  If somebody in front of him was blocking him, he just pulled into the left lane to travel for a while without regard to the fact that he was now going the wrong way down the street.  People were walking out in front of him, horns were blaring, and motorcycles and scooters were weaving in and out of what seemed like chaos, which of course it was! 

We finally arrived at the train station: the place was packed and the lines were long.  Cindy and Mimzy found an information booth/window from which they were able to determine which line we needed to be in to buy tickets for the “Fast Train.”  China has a new High Speed Train system to selected cities.  This trip used to take about eight hours with plenty of stops.  Now it takes a direct route in about two hours.  It travels over 200 miles an hour!  Cindy, Mimzy and I waited in line while the others waited back from the congestion.  When we had our turn at the window we found that the fares could not be purchased with a credit or debit card.  The costs were ¥234 each, one-way, so ¥468 round trip.  That came out to about $74 American each for our train fares.  I thought the price was reasonable but Mimzy and Cindy thought that was really high.  We got out of line and went to look for a bank from which we could draw some of our team working funds from our ATM card.  Unfortunately, not all banks and ATM’s accept every visa or debit card, and almost never does a credit card work in China.  We eventually had to go to three banks to find one that had international services sufficient for us to draw out ¥2,340 (or $346.33) enough to cover our train fares for next weekend.  I am going to stay in Guangzhou for a couple of days; the four Harding students are going to go on to Hong Kong.  We should all be on the same trains together coming and going to Guangzhou.

We all wanted to take our student-hosts to dinner for helping us, but we decided to catch the bus back to a restaurant near the campus because they knew the area better.  So another ¥1 for each of us and we were back on the bus headed back to campus.  We went to a local restaurant that Carey had been to before and we got a table and commenced to decide what we wanted.  Most of us Americans have been pretty good about at least trying everything, but we all decided we have had enough hot and spicy food for the week so would they order something milder for us.  They tried.  And they did better, but some of it was still pretty hot and spicy.  But, it was very good.  The cauliflower and the shredded potatoes dishes were particularly good.  The meat in the dishes here is such a small part of the food that it seems like there is none at all, but the beef dish we ordered was good, (and hot and spicy – WOW, it was hot!).  I’ve learned to watch out for anything that looks like a red pepper in the dish!

After dinner Cindy and Mimzy had other plans so we thanked them profusely for helping us; they keep insisting that they are so lucky to spend the time with us and to be able to practice and speak English.  They are among the sweetest and most delightful students we have met here!