After teaching in Zhengzhou, Henan, China for one year, multiple jobs private and university based, summer school and one off promotions, I was much in need of a holiday.
I was itching to get on the move by the final week of school, and had
bought my ticket to Kunming by train, so all that was left was to organize my
belongings and see friends for the last time. I tried to arrange dinner with
people but soon realized how stressed I usually get with things like this, so
instead just let it happen. Went out for hot Pot with Colin, Pablo, Julia,
Pete, Alex and Dave. Then out drinking at Target, caught up with Yoko and Paul,
many others came including people from Aihua, and it was good to see LoaWang
too. I hopped back and forth to Reds bar to see Teresa and Red, but it was
difficult and I was tired and not very enthusiastic about drinking.
Sunday afternoon I went over to brains place to do some
baking, other Brian and Ricky and Dirk were the awesome guys I had fun with
that day, we played a popular American game Risk, which was a lot to take in,
but generally sat around laughing most of the day and night.
Monday I packed fully, and arranged Indian for dinner with the
boys and Tanner. I went out with Julia to get a backpack as cheap as possible
to use as a day pack. Hard to find one without glitter or plastic on it. We
hung out for the afternoon and then Tanner helped to take a big box of things
to Pete and Heidis place to store until next year. Indian was filling as
always, and it was good to see the guys one last time.
Tuesday came and I was in a mess, as I couldn’t find my
train ticket. I was on the phone with Teresa trying to buy a new one, but there
was no seats or beds for another week. I tried texting Heidi to see if they
were available in case I had packed it into the box. Then I spent time looking
at flights instead but they were very expensive. Luckily Pete went home for
lunch so I sped over here and emptied the box, it wasn’t where I thought maybe
it was but in the end found it in with a million scrapbooky tickets and flyers
I find hard to throw away. I could finally breathe and relax.
To the train station through the rain (the last week had
been humid and heavy rains in Zhengzhou) to get onto a train around 9pm. It was
overnight and I expected to sleep and get up and off in Kunming at around
7.45am.
The morning came and I was excited and ready to move. The
train didn’t stop.
Instead of a 12 hour train ride I was stuck on the top bed
(hard sleeper) for 35 hours. No one spoke to me the whole time, I read my book
and dozed and tossed and turned for a long long time. If I could have mentally
prepared for this, it might not have been so bad, but I was annoyed that I had
been so wrong.
On arrival in Kunming, I felt very sick. Probably from
getting stuck in torrential downpour and into cold air-conditioned taxi for an
hour last week.
