Ok, today I have some news that may surprise anyone who knows me well. I have gone and gotten a job. (Pause for *gasps*) It's true! (That is how much the noise outside my apartment annoys me!) In case you don't know me all that well, or you didn't read my Riyadh blog, here is a link to a post where the only job I really wanted had to do with coloring. Unfortunately, I left before that particular job ever materialized.
All right, so... the new job. I'm teaching, and I will have been there three weeks tomorrow. Today is Labor Day in China so I am off today, which is why I am blogging. (Working definitely limits my blogging time.) Of course, having been out of the teaching game for several years now, I promptly got sick after about a week. (I have definitely lost my "teacher immunity.")
Every morning, I need to catch a taxi into work which is about 8 kilometers from where I live. This is my least favorite part of each day. Some days, I get a taxi quickly. Other days, I can be waiting on the street for twenty minutes or so before one finally stops. Unfortunately, the later it gets, the worse the traffic gets, and the harder it becomes to get a taxi that will take me to school.
Now that it has been about three weeks, I am beginning to see a pattern. On Mondays, I start early and hope that I get a taxi right away because the later it gets, the less likely it is that any taxi will take me at all. I'm learning that if it's raining, try and suck it up and hope for the best. Also, bring a change of shoes. If it's raining and Monday... Well, I am starting to think that the better option is to stay at home, curl up in the fetal position and just start rocking back and forth in frustration.
The day after we hiked Mt. Huashan, I awoke with a bit of a sore throat. It was Sunday so I just rested and didn't do much other than drive back to Gao Xin. On Monday, I woke up feeling about the same. A bit of a sore throat but not too bad. It was raining fairly hard. It had rained on the previous Friday when I was going home (a whole other story which will probably be it's own blog post later) so I had an inkling of what to expect. (Others had warned me about how difficult Fridays are, but no one had mentioned Mondays.)
At 7:15 I was on the street corner trying to catch a cab. After 3 empty cabs purposely passed me by one finally stopped. I told him where I wanted to go and showed him the Chinese address and he said something to me in Chinese and waved his arm at me in a way that pretty much said "No way!" And he drove off. It is now about 7:25. Around 7:30 another cab stops. This time, I get in first and tell him where I want to go. He starts to drive down the street. Then he starts speaking to me in Chinese. I have no clue what he is saying. He starts speaking to me louder while still driving. I still have no clue. He pulls the car over and turns around and yells at me. I get the picture that he has decided that he doesn't want to take me so I offer to pay 40. (Usually costs 15) He yells at me a bit more in Chinese and then he turns back around so all I can see is the back of his head. He holds up his right hand and starts making a wrist flicking waving motion to basically tell me to get out. Then he proceeded to sit there waving until I got out. So now I am no longer on a busy street corner but a good ways down the street in the middle of a very long block. I have basically cut the amount of cabs available to me now in half. Around 7:45 a third cab finally stops and agrees to take me. By this time, the traffic on the regular streets is horrendous. The school, however, is located on a rather narrow street. This, combined with the late hour and the rain apparently makes the narrow street virtually impossible for a taxi to maneuver. (This was probably what the other taxi drivers were yelling at me about.)
So we turned down the narrow street, and got maybe 100 meters in and traffic came to a stand still. After about 5 more minutes of sitting there, we had gone maybe 10 feet. At this point, the taxi driver started speaking to me. I was hoping that he was telling me to walk. The previous Friday, my taxi driver got stuck and when I got out she was really yelling at me. She charged me extra and yelled a lot. I was really hoping this guy wasn't going to yell at me. (I'm really getting tired of that.) Luckily, he didn't. He was very good natured about it so I was grateful for that. I stepped out of the cab and started walking towards the school. After about ten feet I could feel the water seeping into my shoes. After about 2 minutes, my shoes felt like sponges squishing water with every step. I can not even begin to describe the walk in to work that day. Luckily, once I was past the worst of it, I took a bit of video so I won't have to try and describe it. And yes, I am walking down the middle of the street because the sides are pretty much flooded.
It should be noted that after the second video ends, I had to walk through the "puddle" on the right at the end of the video because there was no other way to go. I will admit that there were quite a few "swear words" going through my head at this point. I felt quite depressed as I continued my trudge into work. I arrived around 8:25 (25 minutes late) a bit "shell shocked." I had no other shoes to change into, so I shoved some paper towels in my shoes and frequently changed them throughout the day. They started feeling a bit "drier" around 5:00 in the evening when it was time to go home. It was still raining when I started my trudge in the opposite direction this time, and within 5 minutes, my shoes were once again soaking wet for my walk home.
The next morning, I had a sore throat and a runny nose. The morning after that, I had developed a cough as well and basically I have been sick ever since. I am on the mend and the weather seems to be improving, but I still never know what to expect when I leave for work in the morning. I have learned to keep my expectations low. Very, very low. Because, while this was my worst day thus far, I do fear that it could possibly get worse.
All right, so... the new job. I'm teaching, and I will have been there three weeks tomorrow. Today is Labor Day in China so I am off today, which is why I am blogging. (Working definitely limits my blogging time.) Of course, having been out of the teaching game for several years now, I promptly got sick after about a week. (I have definitely lost my "teacher immunity.")
Every morning, I need to catch a taxi into work which is about 8 kilometers from where I live. This is my least favorite part of each day. Some days, I get a taxi quickly. Other days, I can be waiting on the street for twenty minutes or so before one finally stops. Unfortunately, the later it gets, the worse the traffic gets, and the harder it becomes to get a taxi that will take me to school.
Now that it has been about three weeks, I am beginning to see a pattern. On Mondays, I start early and hope that I get a taxi right away because the later it gets, the less likely it is that any taxi will take me at all. I'm learning that if it's raining, try and suck it up and hope for the best. Also, bring a change of shoes. If it's raining and Monday... Well, I am starting to think that the better option is to stay at home, curl up in the fetal position and just start rocking back and forth in frustration.
The day after we hiked Mt. Huashan, I awoke with a bit of a sore throat. It was Sunday so I just rested and didn't do much other than drive back to Gao Xin. On Monday, I woke up feeling about the same. A bit of a sore throat but not too bad. It was raining fairly hard. It had rained on the previous Friday when I was going home (a whole other story which will probably be it's own blog post later) so I had an inkling of what to expect. (Others had warned me about how difficult Fridays are, but no one had mentioned Mondays.)
At 7:15 I was on the street corner trying to catch a cab. After 3 empty cabs purposely passed me by one finally stopped. I told him where I wanted to go and showed him the Chinese address and he said something to me in Chinese and waved his arm at me in a way that pretty much said "No way!" And he drove off. It is now about 7:25. Around 7:30 another cab stops. This time, I get in first and tell him where I want to go. He starts to drive down the street. Then he starts speaking to me in Chinese. I have no clue what he is saying. He starts speaking to me louder while still driving. I still have no clue. He pulls the car over and turns around and yells at me. I get the picture that he has decided that he doesn't want to take me so I offer to pay 40. (Usually costs 15) He yells at me a bit more in Chinese and then he turns back around so all I can see is the back of his head. He holds up his right hand and starts making a wrist flicking waving motion to basically tell me to get out. Then he proceeded to sit there waving until I got out. So now I am no longer on a busy street corner but a good ways down the street in the middle of a very long block. I have basically cut the amount of cabs available to me now in half. Around 7:45 a third cab finally stops and agrees to take me. By this time, the traffic on the regular streets is horrendous. The school, however, is located on a rather narrow street. This, combined with the late hour and the rain apparently makes the narrow street virtually impossible for a taxi to maneuver. (This was probably what the other taxi drivers were yelling at me about.)
So we turned down the narrow street, and got maybe 100 meters in and traffic came to a stand still. After about 5 more minutes of sitting there, we had gone maybe 10 feet. At this point, the taxi driver started speaking to me. I was hoping that he was telling me to walk. The previous Friday, my taxi driver got stuck and when I got out she was really yelling at me. She charged me extra and yelled a lot. I was really hoping this guy wasn't going to yell at me. (I'm really getting tired of that.) Luckily, he didn't. He was very good natured about it so I was grateful for that. I stepped out of the cab and started walking towards the school. After about ten feet I could feel the water seeping into my shoes. After about 2 minutes, my shoes felt like sponges squishing water with every step. I can not even begin to describe the walk in to work that day. Luckily, once I was past the worst of it, I took a bit of video so I won't have to try and describe it. And yes, I am walking down the middle of the street because the sides are pretty much flooded.
It should be noted that after the second video ends, I had to walk through the "puddle" on the right at the end of the video because there was no other way to go. I will admit that there were quite a few "swear words" going through my head at this point. I felt quite depressed as I continued my trudge into work. I arrived around 8:25 (25 minutes late) a bit "shell shocked." I had no other shoes to change into, so I shoved some paper towels in my shoes and frequently changed them throughout the day. They started feeling a bit "drier" around 5:00 in the evening when it was time to go home. It was still raining when I started my trudge in the opposite direction this time, and within 5 minutes, my shoes were once again soaking wet for my walk home.
The next morning, I had a sore throat and a runny nose. The morning after that, I had developed a cough as well and basically I have been sick ever since. I am on the mend and the weather seems to be improving, but I still never know what to expect when I leave for work in the morning. I have learned to keep my expectations low. Very, very low. Because, while this was my worst day thus far, I do fear that it could possibly get worse.
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