Traveling the World

As the months creeped by, I became ever more happier and excited for the trip. It wasn’t just the idea of seeing a new country, it was also that I hadn’t been outside of China since I got back from Thailand in September 2008. It was my chance to reconnect with the closest semblance of my own culture. I had so much time to think about the trip it made me crazy. I had to plan other trips before this one to help get my mind off how far away it was from the time we purchased the tickets.

When I got my new job in Hankou (on the other side of the river), I decided to take my salary from work and put it straight in the bank so I could afford to go on the trip. I earned 5000rmb (~$900) a month, but I knew I only needed about $1500 for my trip, so I knew I’d have enough money to buy a nice Canon SLR. In all of our previous trips together, I always relied on them to take good pictures because my Fujifilm was a terrible camera. I wanted to take responsibility and take pictures for myself instead of relying on others, and so right before I came to Australia I bought a camera for 4600rmb (almost a month’s salary!).

During autumn I had a fight with Matt, and he threatened to abandon me at the airport. I wasn’t worried about it because there was still so much time before we went and I knew he’d forget about it. Matt is very quick to pick on me and joke, but I’ve realized that’s what Aussies do when they are being friendly. Odd, I know.

At one point when I was still with Lily (if you didn’t know, we broke up again, and this time for good), she was invited to come along as long as she took care of her money and visa issues. She failed to do so, and so she didn’t end up coming.

As it came time to leave for Australia, I was so pumped that I stopped caring about my job. I know it’s bad, but I couldn’t get Australia out of my mind. This was my chance to escape the cold, bleak winter in Wuhan and go back to the beautiful summer that reminds me like home.

The day arrived, and I woke up early and it was freezing cold and raining. I took a taxi to the station where the bus would take me to the airport. After getting to the airport I met up with Nick and Fey and we moved to the terminal, where Matt was waiting for us. After an hour and a half, we arrived in Guangzhou, our first connection. Guangzhou was raining and cold like Wuhan, but not as bad. After an 8 hour layover spent inside the city, we happily scampered back to the airport for our next flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Unfortunately with budget airlines, things don’t always go as planned. Thankfully the only problem was that our flight was delayed from 8:45pm to 9:30pm. Four hours later and we were in Malaysia. We checked into the beautiful hotel built by the same man who built the airport and owns AirAsia (he’s brilliant). In the morning we took a bus into town and got some Chinese Malay food. After checking out the clothing market and buying a red shirt (If only I’d known how hot it was in Australia, I would have gotten a white shirt instead), we hopped over to the monorail and checked out the mall. We knew we’d have 2 days in Kuala Lumpur on the way back, so we just walked around enjoying ourselves and eating. Before heading back to the airport, we stopped for Indian food. We had Chicken tandoori, garlic naan bread, and curry.

Time having flown by so quickly, we rushed back to the airport for our final flight: Gold Coast, Australia. I was extremely lucky to have no one sitting in the 2 seats to my right, so as soon as the seat belt sign was turned off, I laid down and went to sleep after having a nice codeine to put me down for the night. At one point in the middle of the night we had some turbulence and so I woke up and sat up, only to fall asleep again within a few minutes. When I woke, there was a Chinese woman sleeping sitting up in the row of seats I had previously conquered, so I was quite upset because I wanted to lay back down. I wanted to shake her and tell her to get up, but I refrained.

When we arrived in Australia, the sky was amazing and it air was clean. To continue reading about my arrival in Australia, go over to my Australia page.

Australia is even closer now, and I finally purchased the last remaining flight needed to complete the journey. As surprising as it may sound, I’m paying $50 to fly from Wuhan to a city in the south of China called Guangzhou, $80 from Guangzhou to the capital city of Malaysia called Kuala Lumpur, $50 from Kuala Lumpur to Brisbane, Australia, $50 from Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur, and $80 Kuala Lumpur to Shenzhen, a city in China very close to Guangzhou. Altogether for my flights I’ll be spending about 1/4 the price of a round-trip ticket from America to China (MIA>LAX>Beijing>Wuhan).

I’m having a lot of problems at work, as my co-teacher finds it necessary to challenge me and fight me on every little detail possible. I can’t stand it, and I haven’t told her that in 3 weeks she’ll be forced to fend for herself and teach the kids for a month on her own. I don’t have time to deal with people’s bullshit because life is too short and I want to enjoy myself. Maybe she’ll be even more angry when she finds out I’ve left for such a long time, but she’ll have a month to get over it!

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This is my second Thanksgiving away from home. I was teaching my students about Thanksgiving yesterday, and I explained how unlike our other holidays, we don’t exchange gifts, and instead say what we’re thankful for. My example for them was that I’d be thankful for being back home with my family on Thanksgiving, because I live in China and can’t see them every day. As I said it, I sniffled a bit but didn’t let anything show.
Expats always talk about life in their new home, yet usually refrain from thinking about their old home for fear of feeling emotions one would call normal. I have to admit I have fallen victim of that at some stage in my time here, but talking about these things is normal and all expats should do it to maintain a healthy mental status.

I often wonder if what I did by leaving was the right thing, especially because being a teacher in a developing nation is so hard, and it’s even harder to leave because you can get so comfortable and stuck in your ways.

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That first portion was written a few weeks ago, when I was going through a rough time. Since then things have been looking much better. I’m getting ready to sign a contract with a primary school for 1 year, commencing September 1st, 2009 and ending June 30th, 2010. I did a demonstration class in front of the woman in charge of hiring foreign teachers, and she was extremely happy with my performance.

I had originally mentioned how I had my trip to Australia planned out for the middle of December. The school said this was a huge problem, as their winter holiday was from the middle of January to mid February. As a result, I’d be missing a month of work, something you just can’t do in a public school when the students are meant to have one stable teacher for the entire year.

As a result of my performance and attitude towards the job, the woman said she’d push the principal to accept my trip and let me go. The only downside is I would be unpaid for that period of time. The upside is I’d have 8 weeks off from school instead of only 4! I will know in a day or two what they say. If they agree to it, then I’ll go to Australia and then probably do a second trip for the following month either to India, Malaysia/Singapore, or Vietnam.

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Things with Lily had a little snag, but has since been resolved and we’re quite happy! As we approach our third month, something I haven’t been able to do in many years, my 23rd birthday also comes quickly upon us. She had been asking me to go to this remote village with her called Fenghuang (in English “Phoenix”), and I decided that I wanted to go for my birthday.

We must endure a 16 hour train ride to a city called Huaihua, and then a 3 hour bus ride through the mountains into this remote and untouched landscape. I’m really excited to see an area of China that’s not a metropolis! Because my birthday falls on a Friday and I have to work on the weekend, we’re leaving Sunday night the 21st after I finish work, and coming back Friday the 26th before I have to work the next day.

When we return, Lily and I are going to finalize the preparations for the business, hoping to run classes from July 5th until the 31st. The week after our classes end, I’ll be going to a coastal paradise called Zhuhai for a 12 day Summer English camp. They pay pretty well and it looks like a lot of fun. This will be from August 5th until August 16th. The next day, Alfred, Richard, Melba, and Emma (Alfred’s gf) will arrive in Shenzhen from Hong Kong, where I will meet them to begin another trip!

I will leave them on the 27th to return home to begin moving to the new apartment before my job begins, but they will stay here until September 6th. I wish I could stay with them the whole time, but I’m just glad to get 10 days with them, and a chance to see them travel outside of America (one of the main goals for my travel website: getting people to travel).