Originally written 8/29/13
What a long day it has been!! After that less than ideal
fright with Delta cancelling my original flight, I am relieved to say that
there were no more bumps in the road and I am now sitting in my temporary apartment
(more on that to come).
I won’t go into the teary goodbye too much but I am proud to
say that I don’t think the Woomers made a scene at the airport (“Ten points to
Slytherin!”). I put on my classic soldier face and marched my way through
security. It wasn’t until the plane was taxiing down the jet way that I think I
started to panic.
For those of you who know the Buffalo area, you know there
is a really big, really obnoxious blue water tower. For as long as I can
remember that thing has been there and as I caught sight of it for the last
time, I found myself praying that it would still be up when I returned home. A
strange thing to think about as I am leaving but it made my stomach drop and suddenly burst to life with butterflies. But all I could think of was
what my mom told me the first time I went to live in another country for the
first time:
“If you didn’t have
butterflies, you couldn’t call it an adventure!”
Those words have helped me through so many tough (but
ultimately exciting and life changing) times and I embrace those butterflies
every time they decide to pop up. So I sat back and as the wheels of the plane
left the ground of good ol’ Buffalo, I knew there was no turning back and that
it was time to GO ON AN ADVENTURE!!
Now, I can say this first hand—flying to China can be a bit
intimidating. The first time I came over here last December, I was one of five
foreigners—the rest of them all being older businessmen who sat in (you guessed
it) business class. It was a bit scary, feeling like you were the bizarre
outsider, different from everyone else around you, and really unable to
communicate (it really stinks when you have a window seat and you just really
have to go to the bathroom). Luckily (and looking back, I should say “obviously”),
a lot more Americans travel to China in August than they do December.
Everywhere you turned there were other foreigners sitting around you and, even
though you never necessarily communicate with them, it’s just a relief to know
that they’re there.
Originally, I had chosen a specific seat on the flight—the
end of the second section right in front of the bathroom with no one behind me
and I only shared the row with one other person. Well that person was quite fortunate when I didn’t show up to that flight—they got the whole row to
themselves, the lucky dog! And while I was a bit bitter that I didn’t get the
seat that I was really excited about, I
did still have my beloved window seat and I had a very nice flight.
I sat next to a lovely Chinese couple. The wife thought that
I was Chinese which resulted in her husband just laughing at her and then they
were determined to teach me a few words and phrases (from the looks on their
faces, my tones have not improved). They seemed excited that I was moving to
Hangzhou to teach English and they had all the faith in the world that I would
enjoy it and be a very good teacher. Their friendliness definitely helped to
settle the butterflies in my tummy just enough so I could sleep.
I slept for SIX HOURS.
I don’t think I have slept that long on a plane ever! I
watched two movies (“Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “Rise of the Guardians”)
and then slept for two hours, watched another movie (“Les Miserables” and an
attempt at “Sherlock Holmes”) and then fell asleep for another four hours. When
I looked down at my watch and saw that there was only an hour and a half until
we landed, I was so excited but then it dawned on me that I only had a little
over an hour before I had to start being responsible again. No pressure.
I’ve looked at this endeavor as a series of obstacles (Visa,
packing, flights, unpacking, teaching, etc.) and one of the ones I was the most
nervous about was actually having someone to pick me up from the Pudong
Airport. They had originally scheduled someone to pick me up on the 28th
at 2:50pm, I could only hope that they got my email telling them about my
flight change. Luckily, they did and a little old man (who didn’t speak a word
of English) was there with a sign that said Amanda on it.
Obstacle:
Cleared.
As soon as I got in the car, all my nerves seemed to vanish
and were replaced with surreal excitement. I was really in China, driving
towards Hangzhou to start my teaching career. Any fear I felt was wiped away
with the exciting unknown that waited for me!
It was about a three hour ride from the Pudong Airport (the
driver got lost in the parking garage which made me love him right away… I’m
not the only one that can’t find my way out of those stupid things) to downtown
Hangzhou (passed by Wu Mart, China Mobile, and the lovely Korean BBQ place
Rachel, Olivia, and I went to for Christmas dinner and it made me super
excited).
Now you might be wondering (or you might not), ‘Amanda, I
thought you weren’t living in downtown Hangzhou--I thought you were living at
the actual university.’ And you would be right. Apparently, there is no hot
water in our official apartments just yet (among other things, I suspect) so right now we are staked out at the
Fine Arts School for (hopefully only) a day or two. I’ve been told that
tomorrow (Friday), we’ll be able to move in which is good because I am itching
to unpack and decorate my new apartment (even if it is going to be super tiny).*Update as of Friday night: No such luck*
Around 7 o’clock at night, we pulled into the Fine Arts
campus and Miaomiao came running out. (For those of you who have not had the
pleasure of meeting her) Miaomiao was one of my foreign exchange roommates in
college. I had two from China (Yexi and Miaomiao) and two from Japan (Yuri and
Chisako) but Miaomiao and I became the closest--she came home with me, celebrated
Easter with my family, visited my grandfather in the hospital, and became such
a wonderful addition to our family. In December, I came to China in order to be
a bridesmaid in her wedding and now, here we are, four years later, living in
the exact same city. I just love life sometimes!
Miaomiao and Cindy, the secretary for the School of Foreign
Languages, showed me my room and I basically threw my suitcases down and we
turned around, grabbed another foreign teacher, Gio, and we went out to dinner.
Cindy left and the rest of us went back up to my room where
we looked over our class schedules and textbooks. Being exhausted and
overwhelmed, we decided that enough thinking had been done and we went out for
late night coffee. We found a cute little café called “Gulu Coffee” and just
sat around talking and getting to know one another.
Cindy told us that there are four foreign teachers and I am
hoping she means four new ones because that just does not seem like a lot to me
(of course, I am comparing it to when Rachel was teaching here and there seemed
to be a nice amount of foreign teachers working for HNU).
I’m hoping that by the time the weekend has passed, I will
be all unpacked, settled in, getting to know the other foreign teachers, and
acquainting myself with the new city I will call home for the next year.
Until Next Time,
Amanda
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