There is that moment – once your airplane has just taken off – when it has won the battle over gravity and has “taken flight” – that moment when you realize there is no turning back. I am in the hands of this machine and its operators and the hand of nature. A momentary sense of dread mixed with exhilaration. I am free. I am flying – with all the dangers inherent in that situation. That barely describes the feeling I experiemced as I embarked on this journey. The day before the departure I was suddenly – keyless – for the first time in several decades – no house key, no office key, no car key. Those keys had all represented some kind of bond, some kind of connection to my life in Utah. Those keys and all they represented were gone – and what was left and what I realized were the most important and most lasting were the connections with people, not with possessions and professions. I had spent the few days before departure spending time with those dearest to me – moments tat can’t be erased by time or space. But wait, before this gets all too maudlin, let’s move forward to where I am now.
I sit at my desk in my studio apartment in the center of Nanjing China – a place totally unknown to me a few months ago – now my home, for at least the next nine months. I arrived two days ago at midnight marvelling at the wide boulevards of tree canopied streets – sycamore trees donated by the French government when Nanjing became the capital of the Republic of China (now Taiwan) – that led the way to the center of town and my apartment – a 30 X 15 foot space that now contains all the possessions that I thought I would need for the next nine months – all that would fit in two suitcases and a carry on, anyway. My boss tells me that this is actually a condiminium complex – each unit (or group of units) owned by different investors and rented out for income. He says my apartment probably cost $300,000 – almost the same as my house in Salt Lake sold for! That is because of its prime location. I am a five minute walk away from the school where I will be teaching with 13 other American teachers - a school created in 1888 by Methodist missionaries – now the #3 high school in all of Nanjing –which is the center of education for southern China.
A day of exploring yesterday with boss, Henry, and the other new teacher this year, Kyle – 26 years old from Seattle – included food from many cultures, high end malls and chaotic traffic and lots of people. I have always dreamed of living in a city center – to experience the urban lifestyle of walking to nearby coffee shops, bars and markets – I have had a taste of this a few times staying in New York or Tokyo – I had never imagined China – but am looking forward to experiencing that kind of life now– I already found a great Taiwanese coffee shop/bakery for my morning constitutional – sorry, Peggy! I know you would die over their bread selection! And the 24 hour convenience store in my building sells grapefruit and vodka cocktails in a can!
It still hasn’t fully registered that I am truly here – that I have slipped the bonds of my life before. I have two weeks before school starts so am enjoying a kind of vacation right now, and looking forward to time to prepare, meet the other teachers and begin teaching.
