Parting ways

Spent the last 2 days doing some casual sightseeing, after blitzing the expo the last 4 or 5. Went to visit James Lee in Hangzhou and had quite a time just seeing what college kids do on weekends. A funny story about the trip...

After arriving at the wrong train station at Hangzhou, James told me to take a bus he thought went directly to the train station I was supposed to meet him at. After promptly agreeing and hanging up, I slipped the Iphone knockoff my dad bought for me into my pocket... except it wasn't my pocket. It slid out and the screen cracked. Massive fail cracked. the entire screen was useless and I couldn't use the interface at all. So when James called me back, I could do nothing but stroke the screen that wouldn't allow me to slide the bar to answer the phone.

To compound that I didn't know where I was going or where exactly to find the only person I knew in the city, I was the only person on the bus who could speak english, and the only one who couldn't speak chinese. I asked the people on the bus, including the guy next to me, if I could borrow their phone, using a comination of broken chinese and pantomiming that my screen was cracked. Curiously enough, the man I asked across the seat from me said he didn't have a phone, though that belied the bulge in his pocket, and the fact that he picked up his phone 15 minutes later. Another man I asked immediately put his phone that he was texting on into his pocket and looked away.

The bus dropped me off at an underpass with no trains to speak about around. I walked into a restaurant to ask, but was promptly given the blank face and a head shake. I wandered into a hospital hoping that someone there spoke english. much to my avail, the lady at the counter didn't know either and wouldn't let me use the hospital phone. She paged a doctor who "know english"... much to my avail she didn't understand that I was looking for the train station, looking to call my friend, or anything of the sort. I was pointing to my screen and trying to ask if I could use her phone, but she merely smiled, waved and said "go post office."

I was laughing inside, as I recall that my dad stated matter-of-factly that All Chinese people knew some extent of english.

Eventually James found me, but I think this experience brings me full circle to the conversation I had coming to China. There is a cultural distance (in which there is a language barrier) that allows me to get to the glass window, but to go no further.

Coming home today. Peace out China