Zaijian China!

I’m back in the US! Woo!

Friday night we had a goodbye dinner for JR, and then he left. Saturday morning I woke up, expecting to be flying from Mianyang to Shanghai around 11pm that night and then back to the US on Sunday. However, a typhoon (like a hurricane) is passing through Shanghai so my flight to the US on Sunday was cancelled, and I was rebooked for another flight on Monday. While my flight to Shanghai wasn’t cancelled, I was worried it would get delayed or cancelled at the last minute, leaving me stuck in Mianyang until the storm blew over, which could be after my flight to the US on Monday. So I freaked out and tried to get out of Mianyang anyway I could so that I had more flexibility, as Mianyang only has one flight a day to major cities. Unfortunately because China hasn’t seemed to fully modernize yet, nothing can be looked up online and no one can be called for information. The only option is to go to a travel agency to find out travel information. Unfortunately all the teachers were in class and no one seemed to understand the urgency of the situation. Finally after storming out of several offices, Mrs. Zhang, the head of the English department with whom I made dumplings a few weeks ago, found some one to take me to a travel agency. I didn’t know that’s where we were going since no one would tell me anything so I didn’t have my passport with me, which led to some problems booking my tickets. After discovering there were no flights out of Mianyang to anywhere useful that I could get on in time (I hadn’t packed yet either as I thought I had all day to pack up), we started looking at flights out of Chengdu, the capital city 2 hours away through which I have passed almost everytime I have travelled this summer. Chengdu to Shanghai flights were booked so I finally got a seat on a plane to Beijing, with the intention that once I got there, I could take the fast train to Shanghai before my Monday flight out of Shanghai. Luckily, my amazing mother found a flight from Beijing to Atlanta leaving even earlier on Sunday than my original flight home! Mummy dearest also booked me a hotel in Beijing for the night so I wouldn’t have to sleep at the airport. The hotel was located right near Beijing’s famous food night market, complete with roasted silk worms and cockroaches although I stuck to noodles and dumplings. I also took a swim in the pool there, so nice. This morning I hooped on my plane to Seattle and am currently in flight home! (This won’t be posted until I land obviously- at home, in Atlanta!!!)

So my third journey to China is over. This trip has definitely taught me a lot about Chinese culture, particularly Sichuan culture, and the Chinese education system, with which I have many complaints. Overall this program turned out to be more of an opportunity to travel to more remote places in Sichuan I never would have seen otherwise, than a volunteer teaching program. They just honestly didn’t need us at the school. To any randos out there considering teaching English in China, make sure that your program is very well defined and that you will actually be teaching, not just playing games with kids on occasion.

So Goodbye China, Hello Senior year! Hopefully I will return to China next year after graduating, doing something more rewarding and challenging intellectually. See you next year China!