The Kindness of Strangers

The last couple days have gone by so quickly. I have the feeling that before I know it, we’ll be boarding the plane to head back to the U.S. I am so not ready to go yet; there’s so much more I want to see, do and learn before leaving. Of course, I may feel differently in a couple weeks, so check back then.

Tuesday was, surprise, hot! With the combination heat, busy schedule, etc, I was not feeling the greatest during the morning lecture from Annette, our lead historian from Rutgers. There was nothing wrong stomach-wise, which I wish were true for many of my colleagues. I just didn’t feel right. In fact, Annette’s lecture was on Buddhism in China, a subject that I am really interested in, and I couldn’t focus nor keep my eyes open. So at the lunch break, I went back to the room and slept for three hours, skipping the afternoon curriculum session. When I woke up, I felt much better. The heat and the rigourous schedule have gotten to many of us, so our group coordinator, Kevin, has been pretty understanding if we need to duck out for a bit.

In the evening, Rene, Katrina and I took a taxi to Annette’s hotel, about a 10 minute ride from here, and it cost us 7 Yuan. Annette was a little late meeting us, because she had spent the day at the Beilin Museum in their basement going through objects. She was as giddy as a school girl. She showed us around the gardens at her hotel and then we all walked to a local Japanese restaurant and had an amazing meal. It was a bit pricier than what we’re used to paying, about 65 Yuan a piece, but well worth it! It was so much fun just relaxing and chatting with Annette and hearing her take on the program. She spoke frankly with us about things she wishes were better, but at the same time spoke about the strengths. After dinner, we walked her back to her hotel and then we took a taxi back home.

This morning (Wednesday) I was shocked when I walked outside to head to class. Not only was it not slap-you-in-the-face hot, it was cool! There was a breeze!! I made it all the way to class without breaking a sweat. I could tell it was going to be a good day. On the way to class, I met up with John and we decided to treat ourselves to some real coffee and an American style coffee shop on Shi Da Lu (the name of the street heading out of the campus). Some members of our group go there every morning. It was a nice treat, but at 19 Yuan, it was much more expensive than the 2.80 Yuan melon or mango juice that I get at the grocery store every morning.

Chinese class went well. We practiced our numbers and the hand gestures that go with each number. This has been especially helpful in bargaining in the local markets. Our vocab still basic, but we’re learning useful stuff. I think that once I get home, I will certainly keep up with learning Chinese. It will be especially nice having a new Chinese teacher at Central this coming year. For Annette’s lecture today, we continued our talk on Buddhism and examined Buddhist art. Today I was able to focus. Lunch was a couple of bao ze, pieces of steamed bread filled with pork and green onions. As we often say to one another, it’s all about the pig here in China. (It’s kind of like Bavaria in that sense.) After lunch, our excursion was to the Beilin Museum with Annette leading as our tour guide. We visited Buddhist sculpture and the stele. Steles are large black stones in which Chinese scholars used to inscribe their books, sketches, portraits, etc. They were basically libraries on stones. It’s not as inconvenient as you’d think. The idea was that anyone could put paper on the stones, make rubbings and bring the book home. We saw that process today and I actually got a scroll of a scene of Taishan, an important mountain in the region.

Instead of taking the motor coach back to the campus, Rene, Katrina and I decided to stay in the old city to do some shopping, since it was such a nice day. For myself, I bought a name chop, which is a stone with your name carved in it. It’s what the Chinese use to sign their names to documents. If you ever see a painting by a Chinese artist, you’ll see the red stamp of the artist’s name. Rene already had one made, so she helped Katrina and I pick out stones. I chose one for the year of the rat, which is my sign. (Funny thing is, here they refer to it as year of the mouse.) We both then got our Chinese names inscribed on the stones. I also bought a variety of gifts for people back home. (You’ll have to figure out who you are and what you got!)

It was dinner time, and we thought we’d try finding this restaurant called Little Sheep, which is a hot pot restaurant similar to the one I had been to last week. We thought there was one downtown, but we couldn’t find it. So we decided to ask people. Rene and Katrina were asking people and no one seemed to know where it was. As I was walking around trying to see if I could spot it, I heard a polite voice, “Excuse me, excuse me.” I turned around and there was a young woman there and a young man with her. She continued, “I am a high school student here and would like to practice my English. May I talk to you?” Of course, I told her. So we struck up a conversation and the young man took part as well. Her English was quite good for just three years in high school. He apologized for his English, but it was still good enough to get his ideas across. The five of us chit chatted a bit and we asked if they knew where the Little Sheep restaurant was. They didn’t know, but the young man started calling people on his cell phone until he found out. He told us that there wasn’t one close by, that the nearest one was quite a distance away. We were disappointed, but said we’d just head back to where we were staying to find something near there. “Oh, where are you staying?” “Shaanxi Shi Da,” we replied. The girl got very excited. “My high school is attached to the Shi Da! The Little Sheep restaurant is close to that. We will take you there!” So they lead us to the bus stop, we rode the bus together for about a half hour while talking. The young man had to leave us when we got off the bus as he had a class to go to, but the young woman walked us to the restaurant, brought us inside, got a private room for us, went through the menu, which had no English, helped us order, and was just genuinely going out of her way to be helpful. We asked her to join us for dinner, but she said that she needed to get home because her mother would be worried about her. She just wanted to be sure that we had what we needed. So she left and we had our hot pot for dinner. I think that this can be a lesson to anyone who travels abroad. Yes, you need to be careful, but there are so many wonderful, generous, kind people out there who want to help visitors to their regions. So many Americans travel with the mentality that every person is out to get them or that everyone hates Americans. I can tell you from experience, it’s just not so.