Traveling the World

So the story of how I went to a small town 2 hours north of Wuhan begins with, sadly, the untimely death of the father of a student of mine. The cousin (niece) of the deceased man approached me at work with a proposal to move in with the family to teach them English (and basically help fill the void of having no man in the house, which is completely understandable when you have 3 women who were always taken very well care of and had their needs met, and are suddenly without that person). So I agreed to meet with the niece just to see what they wanted me to do for them. So I met with Angel (the niece) a few days later and she talked about how much it hurt everyone how her 33 year old uncle died from a burst vein in his brain. I don’t want to get more into specifics but suffice it to say, the entire family blames the hospital. Anyways, she told me that many people owe her uncle money and invited me to go with them to a small town in the countryside called Xiaogan to try to collect a crapload of money from this 1 businessman.

So we left the next morning at 8am and drove out there. Me, Angel, Susan (the man’s widow), Summer (a friend of Angel’s who is from this town as well), and a friend of Angel’s from Wuhan all went out there. The friend was our driver because the car her husband owned was now sitting in the driveway because he was the only person who knew how to drive (remember, Automatic transmission cars aren’t sold here). About an hour or so after we arrived we met Summer’s family because they were preparing for a wedding the next day. Her father prepared lunch for us and it was amazing! He cooked peanuts, duck neck, pork, beef, among other things. It’s customary during Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) to cook many dishes at each meal, even if it’s not all consumed!

I also met Angel’s family in the countryside (look for my videos via the Photos link at the top of the page). It was really sad because when we arrived (in the deceased’s car), his mother started bawling and screaming about how it was unfair that the hospital killed him and he should still be here and how she should have died not him. We stayed there for a few hours and we decided to go out to the river behind the mini forest behind their farmland. After we came back to the town area, our driver friend was called back to Wuhan by his boss, thus stranding us with the car (he took a bus back) for the day.

Thankfully we were able to get another friend of theirs to drive us around for the day, and we went out to a temple and a beautiful lake in the mountains and a really cool sunset (remember that living in Wuhan, I almost never see the sun at ALL). After that we drove a different way back through the mountains and went to a very small neighborhood where more family members lived and we had dinner. Then we drove back to Summer’s cousin’s house to help prepare for the wedding. Around 8:30pm we went to Summer’s dad’s house and to bed around 10.

Early the next morning we got up and walked down the road to get breakfast. Then we went back for the wedding. Now this is where it gets interesting. The bride’s side and the groom’s side never meet for the wedding. There is no chapel and there is no formal party. What happened (from our experience, since we were with the bride’s family) was only unmarried girls were allowed into the room to see her and I don’t know what else happened in there because I wasn’t allowed in. But at some point the bride came out in her full gown and flowers and a sheet over her head (on top of the veil) so no one could see what she looked like (even though we already knew, haha) and she was carried into a car, which I think her husband or father drove to the groom’s family’s house. Apparently the fun is had on the groom’s side, but we weren’t allowed to go. We had a traditional Chinese lunch at the same place, in which once you sit down at the table you can NOT get up for ANYTHING until every dish has been served, all the food eaten, and everyone full. Another thing about Chinese culture is their idea of ‘face,’ which I’ve mentioned in previous posts. This means, if someone offers you a cigarette or alcohol, you MUST accept it even if you don’t want it (don’t have to smoke the cigs, can put em in your pocket and say you will smoke it later) to save the person from ‘losing face.’ This means I was forced to drink alcohol which was beyond disgusting, so I was happy to have my water bottle so I could quickly remove the aftertaste from my mouth.

So now we’re stuck without a driver once again.. so since I was absolutely the ONLY person alive with driving experience (yet none with manual transmission), I taught myself how to drive so we could go around town. You are probably thinking how insane I am to do such a thing, but all that mattered was not stalling out I only stalled out a few times over the several times I drove and otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing. The hardest part was going in reverse and coming to a full stop to turn off the car. Anyways they all thought I was a great driver so they want me to get a Chinese driver’s license (apparently very easy to get since I already have one in America) and will get to use their car whenever I want (especially in the case of leaving Wuhan to drive around the country).

At 4:30 we arrived in Wuhan, to find that the apartment was locked. For the first time ever. I don’t know why he locked it the one day I was gone.. but I was angry because I wanted to get in! I called him, tried the building manager, building engineer. I called Alex, Mike, Tyler, and Mark to no avail. Alex was at work til 9:30pm and the other three had dead phones. You’re probably wondering why I didn’t have my key with me.. well that’s because I wasn’t expecting to stay an extra day in the countryside.

All in all, I got back in around 9pm when Mark came home and the girls stuck around for an hour or so while I waited for him. It was a really good experience for me, and it made me appreciate the life I have been fortunate enough to lead. Sorry for the long post but it’s worth the read!