Adventures in Guangzhou!

Luckily my language program organized a driver to take me to the airport so I didn't have to worry about that. I had had a few exams at the end of the last week to assess my progress but as it was, this ride seemed like the ultimate final exam. I had a forty minute car ride to chat with a Beijinger who spoke no English. I could have sat there silently counting away the kilometers, but I decided that it was time to step it up. I won't lie and say that we conversed deeply about literature, politics, and the meaning of life, but I did manage to have a meaningful conversation with the guy about his job, his family, traveling, studying Chinese, and being an expat in China. It was nice.

Once at the airport, the stress of traveling hit home when I remembered that I had two ginormous bags to check and one slightly oversized carry-on. My ticket clearly stated that I was only allowed to check one bag under 20 kg so as I waited in line I tried to work out the Chinese in my head for how to convince them the excess was okay. The excuses I came up with ranged from "but I'm a famous American singer!" to "but these bags are filled with teaching materials--don't you want the Chinese youth to improve their international stature with English?"

I got even more nervous when a foreigner in front of me had the same problem and was told that she couldn't check two bags. She started throwing a fit in English and just like the guidebooks say, everyone simply stared. For her the end result was simply "bu xing," or basically, "can't do it." I figured I was going to have to finesse this one big time but as I stepped up, the guy behind the counter barely even looked up. After he tagged the first bag I simply threw the second one up and he tagged that one too without a word. I grabbed my boarding pass and walked away, not having said a single word in English or Chinese. Sometimes you just never know in China.

Next step was the security check. I was curious as to how the recent events in England would affect the Chinese and I got my answer. As I stepped up to the conveyer belt, I informed the lady (in Chinese) that I had a laptop in my bag. Did she want me to take it out and turn it on? No, sir. How about the iPod in my pocket. Is that a problem? Nope. Okay then... My bag went through the x-ray and I passed through the metal detector without a sound. As I went to pick up my carry-on once again, one of the workers asked, is this yours? I said yes. She then proceeded to tell me that she needed to open up my gatorade to make sure it was safe. I took this opportunity to make my first wise crack in Chinese and responded, "Why, are you thirsty? You should drink more when it's this hot out." She was amused.

The flight itself was fine. I had a seat in the front row of the economy section and managed to finagle my way into getting some service from the business class flight attendants. I think I actually slept for most of the flight so in that respect, I guess I give China Southern Air two thumbs up. Unfortunately I think my friend Seiji said it though when he noted that once you fly domestically it's tough to go back to the train. It's tough to argue with a 3 hour journey as opposed to a 25 hour journey. Hmmm.

Touching down in the GZ airport felt a bit weird. I had a slight sense of deja vous but at the same time, it was something totally different. It was almost exactly a year ago that I arrived here after a marathon 24+ hour trip. That time I was with my roommate, who has now left China to begin grad school. That time my school picked me up and took me to my new home. That time I didn't speak a word of Chinese. That time it was all a mystery as to what the next year would hold for me. This time I arrived myself and found the public bus back into the city by asking one of the employees in Chinese. This time I got back to my school and waved a hello to the guards at the front gate who know me quite well.

It's feelings like this that are strange, hard to explain, and surreal. I am now the veteran PiAer for southern China. I'm the guy that's supposed to know how things work, where to go, how to get there, and what to do once there. My new roommate is arriving tonight with little to no China experience and will likely look to me to show him the ropes. The problem is, I'm not sure I know how. Last year I had two or three different people that I would call anytime I didn't know where to go, what to do, etc. This year there are going to be people calling me. I guess I just hope that I can help out.

In talking with the two Yale-China fellows who are also starting their second years, we all agreed that we didn't know the city nearly as well as we'd like to and that we wanted to explore more, find new awesome restaurants, and make more local friends. A lot of these things were almost impossible last year without language skills but hopefully that has all changed. As I begin this second year abroad in China, I have no idea where it will take me, but I do know that I'm as excited as ever to be here and I can't wait to see where it goes.