After yesterday’s fiasco, I thought that my remaining travel to Beijing would go smoothly. Yeah …I guess that’s what I get for thinking!

I hung out at my apartment until about 2am, then packed up and took a cab back to the train station. When I went to buy my ticket for the 3am train, the worker told me that it didn’t exist. Despite my repeated pleas, she insisted that there was no 3am train … but there was a 4am train! I looked very closely at her screen, double-checking the departure time, arrival time, train number, and price. Sure enough, it would arrive in Changsha at 7:18am, giving me a good two hours of padding before my airplane left from the airport. So I went for it.

By the time I boarded the train, I was exhausted … I caught a few zzz’s in the waiting room, but I didn’t want to sleep too deeply and miss the train. So once I hit the smoke-filled and crowded car, I nudged my butt onto a seat and fell fast asleep. A few times during my nap, the train worker came up and either told me the train had arrived or asked me where I was going. Each time, I told him I was going to Changsha. He always seemed confused by what I was saying … I figured that he just couldn’t speak Mandarin.

Then, at about 7:30am, the train stopped at a small town that clearly wasn’t Changsha. I didn’t think much of it, because it seemed that the train was running a little late. But then I noticed that everybody started to get off the train. Every single person. Something wasn’t right, so I started asking questions.

I asked what time we would arrive … “Shen-me-shi-hou-dao-le-changsha?”

“Shi-er-dian,” I was told. Noon.

Bewildered, I took out my ticket and the train schedule which I had smartly packed, and showed the crowd of workers that had gathered. They smiled and told me that the train schedule had changed … instead of going towards Changsha, the train apparantly now takes a huge detour in the opposite direction. We were in Shaoyang, a 4 hour train ride from Changsha. Even if I found a bus or a car, the quickest it could get there would be two and a half hours … and then I’d need another 40 minutes to get to the Changsha Airport.

Using my highly advanced addition skills, I quickly deduced that my plane, which left in three hours, was going to have an empty seat on it. Mine.

Nevertheless, I thanked the workers and bolted outside, calling my good friend Dan, who happens to live in Shaoyang. Although he wasn’t in town, he was able to connect me with Sally, another Shaoyang resident who helped to teach us Chinese during our WorldTeach orientation in August. Sally went to work, calling cabs and cars and drivers, frantically trying to find someone who could at least try to get this crazy foreigner to the airport on time.

When she arrived at the train station ten or fifteen minutes later, she had no leads. Nobody could help. I was stranded, and my parents were going to be even more stranded in Beijing without me. Helpless, I took a step back and smiled. “Well, I’ve always wanted to visit you guys in Shaoyang!”

Suddenly, one of the moto cab drivers who had been listening to the whole fiasco drove up with a man on the back of his bike. The man offered to drive … and for ¥400, I accepted. We ran to his car, filled up with gas, and he literally sped the entire way to the Changsha airport. It was a crazy trip … weaving in and out of traffic, passing cars on the right, and generally pushing his little VW to its limits. I kinda felt bad, because it was obvious that we weren’t going to make it anyways and I was going to have to try to reschedule my flight. But I let the guy go … he seemed to be a little excited to have an excuse to play real-life Grand Theft Auto.

Then it happened. We pulled off the highway and into the airport. I looked at the clock … and it was 10:15. Speed Racer had somehow shaved an entire hour off of a 3 hour and 15 minute trip! I shook his hand, thanked him enthusiastically, and ran inside to check in at the VIP counter (it was the shortest line, so I just acted Important). And a few minutes later, I walked onto the plane!

And here I am in Beijing, hungry and tired. And here.

Thank you, Jesus!

After cleaning the house and packing my bags today, I headed out the door at 6pm to catch the last bus to Changsha. My moto taxi, however, took a terrible route through some back streets, causing me to miss the bus. So I moved on to the train station, where I discovered that the two trains that usually leave between seven and eight were mysteriously not listed. Unfazed, I walked outside to try and find a mini-bus … if you bargain hard, you can usually get a fairly fast (and bumpy) ride on one of those.

That’s when I realized that I had left my airplane ticket in my apartment. Yeah.

So I went back home, had a good dinner of Mac and Cheese, re-packed my bags, and relaxed for a few hours. And here I sit. My plane leaves from Changsha at 10:40 in the morning, so I’m going to catch the 3am train to Changsha (it’s a slow one), arriving bright and early with plenty of time to get to the airport. Looks like I’ll be hitting Beijing with some weary eyes!

FYI, I really can’t afford a babysitter, so I’m leaving webeldotnet in charge of itself while I’m gone. It’ll be making automatic daily posts … I hope it behaves itself!

I haven’t posted much on here in the last week, and I probably won’t for the next couple either. But let me take a few moments to catch you up on what’s going on over here in Chinars.

My marathon training has come to almost a complete stop. For a while, I was experiencing some foot problems because I didn’t have proper shoes. This last weekend, however, I traveled to Changsha, the provincial captial, and found the only pair of size 45 (U.S. 11) running shoes in Hunan Province. I’m not exagerrating. They don’t fit exactly right (Chinese feet are smaller, as are their shoe designs), but they’re much better than anything else I’ve had … so I think I’m finally good-to-go in that department.

On Sunday morning, however, another major problem arose. I bought some tasty fried street food (not sure what exactly it was) … and about an hour or two later, my world started turning upside down. I started vomiting uncontrollably, getting really weak and dehydrated, and even tingling and losing feeling in parts of my body. Not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

Luckily, I was at Daisy’s house (she’s a friend from Loudi), so after letting me (unsuccessfully) try to sleep it off, she and her family helped me to get in a cab and go to the hospital. At that point, I was utterly weak, shaking and starting to lose my ability to think clearly. Daisy’s mom was convinced that it was caused by my shorts and t-shirt (Chinese people are obsessed with wearing warm clothes and literally think it causes illness not to) … but I knew otherwise.

My program director, Daniel, showed up at the hospital in the nick of time, helping me to secure a bed and (with the help of a retired doctor he happened to be with) scooting me back into a hospital room. And by “hospital room”, I mean a 20′ by 30′ waiting room with two dozen people sitting in hard seats with IV’s plugged into their bodies. I stayed in that room for the next 10 or 11 hours, letting nurses repeatedly shoot me in the buttcheek, run 17 tests on me, and hook me up to a steady stream of IV medication (10 bags in all). It was an absolutely surreal experience!

Believe me, that was a really long story short … I’ll have to type more about the Chinese medical system later.

The good thing, however, was that when my principal found out about my illness, he decreed that I should have the entire week off! So I’ve been home in Loudi for the past couple of days, doing some much-needed catch-up on emails, cleaning my apartment in preparation for my parents’ visit, and making some travel plans for Beijing next week. I still have a nasty chest cough, but that should be gone in a day or two.

So tomorrow I’m off to Beijing! It should be a grand adventure … I’m excited to welcome Mom and Dad Webel to The Middle Country, introducing them to the world I’ve been living in for the past 8 months. We’ll spend 5-6 days in Beijing (Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, T-square, etc.) then take a train down to Yueyang to visit my cousins for a couple of days. After a potential visit to Changsha, we’ll head back to Loudi for a week in the life of Lance.

How exciting is that?

One of the things that I’m going to miss about living in China is what I call “walking culture”. Because few people own cars and only a marginal amount drive motorcycles, most people in Loudi either walk or take a cab when they need to go somewhere. As a result, everything they need is really close … the markets, the hospital, the schools, and especially the neighbors.

On my side of the river (it’s called Liangang), almost all of the people work for the huge steel factory. Their kids go to the same schools, they eat at the same restaurants, and they shop at the same supermarkets. When I want to walk to dinner at a restaurant, 75% of the kids I’ll see on the way there are my students … and they’re usually wearing their school uniforms or jackets, so it’s even easier to recognize them.

I don’t know … maybe it just seems friendlier to me when you are out on the street with people instead of compartmentalized inside your own little life (like it usually is in America). And I love it!

When I was in Laos, people on the street kept saying a word to me that I didn’t recognize … it sounded something like “beggam”. Because I had only learned the words “hello” and “thank you”, I had no idea what they were saying, so I just smiled and kept walking.

Strangely, though, I have been having the same experience here in Cambodia … people keep walking up to me on the street and saying, in a completely different language, “beggam”. Perplexed, I decided that I had to figure out what on earth they were saying!

Then, as I looked in the mirror this morning, I realized what the word was … Beckham. I guess that’s what I get for traveling around Asia looking like this!

[Lao visa, by lance webel]

Yesterday I got up at 4:30am to try to get out to Angkor for the sunrise … but ended up walking around Siem Reap for about an hour looking for a place to rent a bike. Finally I gave up and hired a motorbike driver for the day … and it turned out to be a great decision. I saw dozens and dozens of temples, condensing a three-day experience into about 12 hours.

The verdict? Angkor was completely incredible. It was like a giant stone playground … reconstructed nine hundred year old temples that you could just climb around and explore. I’m usually not one for history, or buildings, or touristy things in general, but I’m definitely glad that I chose to go. Another world wonder checked off the list!

And, as a bonus, as I was walking around one of the most complex temples, I ran into Amy K. (WorldTeach volunteer in Yueyang). She and Hayes (my roommate from orientation) had been in Angkor for a couple of days … and it was fantastic to meet up with them for dinner later on! Afterwards, I stopped for a nice massage at a blind hospital then had a sweet, well-deserved rest.

In the morning, I got up, packed, and left for the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, by bus. The trip was terribly long … I once again had the worst seat and it stopped way too many times on the way (to get commissions from restaurants, etc). But it conveniently dropped us off right in the heart of the guesthouses where I was hoping to stay, so I grabbed my bags and started hunting for a good deal.

On the second try, I found a clean and safe four dollar hotel, so I dropped my bags and started checking in. Suddenly, however, I realized something terrifying … I had left my money belt in my hotel room in Siem Reap! My passport … my money … everything. I always hide these important things when I stay somewhere, but this time I totally forgot to pick them up before I checked out!

This was bad news. At best, I would have to take a bus back to Siem Reap tomorrow then take another one right back to here the day after that, wasting two days in Cambodia and missing this city altogether. At worst … well … I didn’t want to think about that. So I scrambled around, making some phone calls and checking schedules.

After a while, I actually found the son of the Siem Reap hotel’s manager here in Phnom Penh (of all things!). He called his mom, found my money belt, and agreed to arrange to have it sent tomorrow via bus (for a price, of course) … so assuming that everything goes as planned, I should be able to stay here and actually enjoy the city.

I’m lucky … when I applied for my Vietnam visa, I had to specify the date of my arrival. I had a hunch that something bad would happen, so I put down the 20th instead of the 19th, giving me an extra day here in Cambodia. Looks like that was a good decision, because if something goes wrong, I’m going to be scrambling like a chicken with my head cut off!

For now, though, I’m chilling like a villain. I’ve got CNN, ESPN Australia, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, CNBC, Discovery Channel, a movie channel, and a handful of Chinese television stations too in my hotel room. And seeing how I only have four dollars in my pocket, I think it’s going to be a night of the good old Electric Drug (television) for me!

[The Chinese Superbowl, by lance webel]

I met Grahm, my fellow Loudi foreigner, in the middle of his travels in Kunming this morning. Why? To watch the Superbowl, of course!

Congratulations to my sister’s family, the Pickerings, who live in Indianapolis. They’re huge fans who have been waiting for this moment for years!

I spent the last three days at Lugu Hu, a surreal lake on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces. While we were there, a foot or two of snow fell, covering the place in white and stranding us there indefinitely. We made the most of it, enjoying their famous toasted fish, having huge snowball wars with the locals, and even watching a couple of movies.

Today was especially fun … after getting up and spending about 2 hours trying to find a ride that would cost less than ¥1500 (nobody wanted to brave the treacherous mountain roads), we mistakenly ran into a huge bus that was going back to Lijiang. We hopped on board, only to find that a couple dozen Mosol minority people were boarding the bus too … not to go to Lijiang, but to help clear the road.

Every time we found a patch of ice or snow, we’d stop the bus and disembark … and literally hundreds of local people would clear the road with shovels and pickaxes. Snowball fights broke out, we pushed cars up the hills, and I even taught a few people how to make snow angels! After about three hours of this madness, we finally got on the road (for the remaining six hours of the trip).

Tomorrow I’m hopping on another bus to Kunming, where I’ll stay for two days to see the city and hopefully the Superbowl as well. Then I’m off to Bannan in southern Yunnan (Jinghong, Menjia, etc). After that I might head back up to Dali and Zhongdian then maybe go to Laos and Vietnam … we’ll see!

Eventually I hope to post a map of my travels so it’s easier for y’all to follow along, but for now here’s a map of Yunnan that I snatched from the Interweb (Lugu Hu is near the “d” in “Zhongdian”). Enjoy!

“Teacher Lance, I think you are eunuch.”

– A Junior 2 student (she was trying to say “unique”)

After today’s lesson on China’s environment, two girls came up to me and said,

“Teacher Lance, we are very sad. People in China do not see this as a problem … even in class, many of the students were talking in Chinese about other things because they don’t care about how dirty our city is. We think it’s sad that a foreigner can come in and notice the problem, but none of us realize what is happening here or care enough to change it.”

It’s just amazing to see these students really get convicted about (and even take ownership of) the state of their environment. These kids are China’s leaders of tomorrow … and I’m reminded once again why I’m doing what I’m doing!

“Mr. Webel, when you get a wife, she’s going to have to … like … raise you.”

– Caroline, one of my students, after watching me frolick childishly at our track picnic today