Hello y’all! I’ve been in Loudi for 3 days now. I still don’t have a phone, Internet connection, or cell phone, so I haven’t been able to conatact anyone, but I wanted to let you guys know that I’m indeed alive. I’m at an Internet bar a few blocks from my apartment … and there are 4 Chinese boys standing behind me watching everything that I do online. I love it.

The past couple of days have been absolutely surreal. I’ve tried to sit down and write about it several times, and each time I am simply overwhelmed at the amount of things to type about and ways to approach it all. So although the following narrative will leave a lot of details out, I’ll try to give some highlights from my arrival.

On Thursday morning all of the WorldTeach volunteers met at Changsha #1 Middle School to leave for their respective placements. My liaison, Helen, met me there … and the first words out of her mouth were “Hello, handsome boy!”. Although I was expecting a more formal introduction from the professional who is supposed to be my official connection and ambassador with my school, I wasn’t phased a bit. That’s just how things go here in good ‘ol China.

Helen and I then walked outside to find our ride. After some scoping, we found a small blue Peugeot … and the 3 other men that would be riding with us. My first thought was disbelief … there was no way that all of my luggage for the year would fit in that trunk … and I just had to laugh at the “planning” for this scenario. The driver (privately hired), my principal, and the elementary school principal had all come along for the event … but all three were strangely nonchalant and disinterested when I introduced myself. So we crammed into the car and headed to my hotel … and to my surprise, we fit all my luggage in the back!

When we headed off, the two men in the front seat immediately lit up, filling the car with smoke. And if you know me, you know how intolerant my body is to the stuff. I couldn’t help but hack and wheeze like crazy … but they didn’t get the hint. In fact, after about one hour of driving around Changsha, desperately lost (we were going the exact wrong direction), I could physically feel the cancer taking over my lungs.

My stomache eventually began to rumble … I had heard story upon story about how our host schools would fatten us up this week, taking us to lavish meals and requesting that we gorge ourselves on strange and exotic foods. So I was rarin’ to go … until I saw where the driver was stopping. It was a totally seedy neighborhood … and the restaurant that we walked into was a total hole-in-the-wall. It had one menu … written in pen on the back of a discarded beer box. Nevertheless, I was simply glad to get out of that car and breath some fresh air. Well, fresher, at least … this is China.

The food ended up being very good … salted minnows (eaten whole), spicy beef, and some other things that I can’t remember now. The conversation was a bit scarce … I think that the language barrier was so bothersome to the men that they had decided to simply not bother. Eventually we were back on the road for another round of chemotherapy-inducing travel!

When we arrived at Loudi, I was floored. It’s an industrial town … and the air is extremely thick with smog and smoke. After 27 years of caring very little about air quality, I instantly became an environmentalist. Global warming is going to kill us all … if the carcinogens don’t get us first!

But if all of this sounds like I’m complaining … I’m not! All of these things are actually quite funny, and characteristic of life as a waiguaren (foreigner). I love the adventure, and I’m relishing the new experiences and growth that I see in myself as a result!

The last three days in my new home city have been filled with a strange assortment of activities … trying to communicate in Chinese (usually unsuccessfully), buying groceries and things for my apartment, wandering the city, cleaning like my mom, watching movies, running, trying to order meals in local restaurants, being stared at by every single person on the street, riding sketchy motorcycles through crazy traffic, playing darts, exploring the school’s facilities … but I don’t have time to type out a narrative about all of them. Perhaps later, when I’m actually online in my apartment. For now, just know that I’m safe and sound, rapidly and slowly adjusting to life in this incredibly foreign place!

Posted to webeldotnet on Sunday, August 27th, 2006 at 8:30 am EST in China & My Life (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!