It's incredible to think that a year ago I was feeling the same buzzing anticipation as I am now, but today I'm on the other side of the world. Looking back, I know so much has changed about me, my family, and my friends since then, but I can hardly believe that a year transpired through all of that.
That, and all of the lives that we've seen, and known; those that we've touched and have touched us. I'm amazed by it all. We've been on the same planet, but in a very different world from the one we knew in Canada, a world which we likely won't visit again for a long time, if ever, and loved (most of) it. But now, all of a sudden, time is up and we move on to a new adventure, almost as long as this one was. Crazy. And it's even more astounding when we try to explain it to our Chinese friends, many of whom have hardly traveled within their own country, let alone to others. To them, the idea of traveling around the world is simply a dream, not some goal they could ever really achieve. I know my friends are limited in many ways, not the least of which is monetarily, but also by family and cultural expectations which demand that they stay at home, get a "good" job with the government, a school or a business like a bank, and then as soon as possible get married and have a child. For us though, with a bit of luck and some determination, we've been able to turn what was once a dream of ours into a goal, and then reality, and we didn't have to be married to do it. I'm proud that Cameron and I have been able to follow through with everything we set out to do this year including becoming good English teachers, learning Chinese, and saving up a comfortable 10k CND to travel with following the completion of our contract. But my experience in China has humbled me too, because I can see how few barriers I have faced while seeking to achieve these goals of mine. So much of what I have been able to do is thanks in large part to my nationality and my cultural background which has given me the freedom and education (both academic and social) to navigate my way to the point I find myself at today. Its difficult to put into words how it feels to be awake in a world like this, but I guess at the end of it all I feel so incredibly privileged to have had this experience and, moving forward, my greatest hope is that I can one day do something that can stand as deserving of such freedom and fortune. Because if I don't, I won't just be letting myself and my family down, I could also become a subject of mire, maybe even an icon of all the injustice and inequality in the world which I hate. So, I guess what I'm saying is... I feel a bit of pressure mounting. It's not a bad thing though, just something can use to push myself forward in these next couple of years.
But for now, can you believe my actual occupation is a full-time traveller? THIS IS GOING TO BE WILD!!!
However, I suppose I ought to hold off on the rest of my starry-eyed reflections to do my duty by updating you, beginning where I left off, about a month and a half ago..
The time passed by as quickly as I thought it would as we kept busy with planning the Southeast Asia portion of our travels, hanging out with our Chinese and foreigner friends, and teaching. We had a wonderful last hurrah for the fall season in late November with our friends Sheri, Toto, and Toto's husband Xiao Chen. They invited us out for a little day trip to a beautiful lakeside scenic area called Ping Shui, and we all drove out together in a little rental car. The trip began with a late breakfast at Chen's favourite dumpling place (where Toto appeared with a big bag of snacks for the day), and then, after the short 30 minute drive to the lake, before we knew it they were ready for a meal again (lunch now, at 11:30 am. Chinese people live to eat!). What a fantastic lunch though, outside on the lovely, sunny terrace of a lonely restaurant overlooking the waters of Ping shui. It was a gorgeous day and we obviously ate way too much, but had tons of fun exploring the area and playing ping pong and badminton in the dusty old rec hall downhill from the restaurant. It was definitely one of our favourite outings with Chinese friends here because of how easily the day flowed, without any discomfort or pressure to come up with conversation ideas that could easily engage everyone - even Xiao Chen, who doesn't speak much English. With games and some nature to explore, you don't have to speak the same language in order to play around and have a great time.
The beginning of December was filled to the brim with good times as well. We had a ball hosting an old friend from high school named Darren, who was in China traveling solo for a few weeks. He caught a train from Shanghai and came to stay with us for a week starting on December 5th. Every day we got to spend with him was a sheer pleasure. This thrilled and surprised us because, to be perfectly honest, we'd never been more than acquaintances in highschool, and although he was friends with Cameron the two of them hadn't spent more than 5 minutes talking in the last 4 or 5 years, nor much before that since Cameron left ECS in their grade 10 year. And yet, after Darren had explored Shanghai and found his way to Shaoxing, the three of us instantly hit it off, exchanging stories of what we'd been up to since highschool and what had brought us to China and all that. But the best part was how frequently and easily we were able to truly speak our minds about life, the similar streams we were brought up in, culture and our families. You don't often get the chance to have those kinds of quality conversations with too many people, even back in Canada, so with was really invigorating to dig into those topics with Darren.
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| Relaxing with Darren and Kitty at West Lake Hostel |
Later, when our weekend rolled around, we took a bus trip to nearby Hangzhou to bike around and see West Lake, the Candy Lab (best handmade hard candy in China!), and the quintessential Chinese-touristy Hefeng Old street. We stayed at a hostel overnight and then came back to Shaoxing to spend a few easy, irie nights together at our place, chewing over travel plans and vowing to get together again when we return to Canada. Eventually, we had to say another difficult goodbye (ok not as difficult as saying goodbye to Dennis, but still tough) to Darren, as he was off to go be our Yunnanese guinea pig - cause he's basically taken the same trip that Cameron and I have planned for ourselves as soon as we leave Shaoxing, and is going to let us know what to hit or miss while we're there.
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| Our apartment on Christmas Day |
We closed out 2014 on another happy note too, this time by helping a little lost soul find their own family to love. It was the afternoon of December 31st and Cameron and I were biking to go check out a new shopping mall that had recently opened up when we noticed a girl peering down and taking photos of a small, black puppy, probably only 5 weeks old. My first thought was that the puppy
belonged to the girl so I kept biking on, but Cameron called out that we should stop, so we turned around and checked out the scene. Upon closer inspection, we could see the puppy was a bit dirty, very tired, frightened, and likely sick/dehydrated and/or malnourished. Our hearts melted instantly. In broken chinglish, we were able to find out from the girl that the dog was not hers, but a stray, and she wasn't able to take it herself because she was only in town for the weekend. Quickly, Cameron and I realized it would be up to us to give this puppy sanctuary and to find someone who would be able to take her in for good, as we had only ten days left in Shaoxing at that point. After exchanging WeChat numbers with the kind girl, who wanted us to keep her informed on the dog's welfare, we wrapped her in my scarf and scooped her up into Cameron's bike basket then took her to our favourite Cafe, the Old House. We knew the owner there, a nice guy who'd rescued a kitten a few months back and had recently added a second dog to his growing brood. We suspected another puppy might be a bit much to ask him to take on, but hoped that at least he was likely to know of someone who might be interested in taking in a cute little abandoned puppy. When we got there and found out he wouldn't be in that day, we took to Chinese social media to see if anyone we knew could help. It took less than two hours before a local friend of mine arrived to see the puppy, and said he and his girlfriend would like to give her a home :D What a great way to start our New Years festivities, which we spent also spent eating. This time,
it was homemade spring rolls and fresh steamed crabs with our Chinese friend named Clark, who brought us the (live) crabs from the nearby coastal city of Ningbo, where he lives. It ended up being just the two of us in our apartment to ring in the new year though, as the Chinese don't normally celebrate the Gregorian calendar new year, reserving their festivities instead for the traditional lunar one to come in a couple months time. So, Clark made his exit at about 11:00, leaving Cameron and I alone to cheers and dance our way into the new year, thankfully with nobody to embarrass ourselves in front of.
And that brings us to our final days in Shaoxing.
With our teaching semester all wrapped up at work, our primary occupation for the last couple weeks was planning for the adventure ahead, with a couple hours of one to one tutoring thrown in. As the day of departing approached, we managed to give away the majority of our possessions to our fellow Chinese teachers, got some train tickets, travel insurance, travel visas, hostels booked, transferred our funds into our Canadian accounts, and said our goodbyes to all the lovely people we've come to know over the course of our year here. And then, with the cleaning and packing still to do, the remaining time seemed to slip by like oil between my fingers. I even told Cameron our train was leaving 3 hours earlier than it actually was so that on the day we left there was a good chance we'd be ready to go on time.
With our teaching semester all wrapped up at work, our primary occupation for the last couple weeks was planning for the adventure ahead, with a couple hours of one to one tutoring thrown in. As the day of departing approached, we managed to give away the majority of our possessions to our fellow Chinese teachers, got some train tickets, travel insurance, travel visas, hostels booked, transferred our funds into our Canadian accounts, and said our goodbyes to all the lovely people we've come to know over the course of our year here. And then, with the cleaning and packing still to do, the remaining time seemed to slip by like oil between my fingers. I even told Cameron our train was leaving 3 hours earlier than it actually was so that on the day we left there was a good chance we'd be ready to go on time.
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| Cameron and one of his favourite students, Clark (not the guy who brought us crabs, a different one) |
Finally, on Saturday evening, we still ended up being in a rush to leave because of an unexpectedly lengthy goodbye with our neighbors, who are a lovely couple of 50 or 60 somethings with a 20something year old daughter. When I knocked on their door to deliver a box of our leftover vegetables and sauces, and to tell them we were leaving, the wife threw open her arms and reached up (she's about a foot and a half shorter than me) to give me a big hug. Then began a round of questioning in which my Chinese, which had held up in most of our short exchanges in the stairwell, failed me but didn't stop her from trying to ask me all sorts of questions to which I had no answers. Eventually, when I reiterated that we had to go right away, as our train would be leaving in an hour and we still had to hail a taxi at rush hour, she insisted on helping us bring our bags to the school, and then stayed with us as we said our last, hurried round of goodbyes to teachers, students, and staff. I noticed she was in full hovering Chinese mother mode when, after I took a sip of water from my water bottle as we waited for Cameron to grab one last thing, she reached into my bag after i'd put the bottle back in it, to tighten the cap and make sure I hadn't carelessly left it loose in my bag. What a gem of a lady. We couldn't say much to each other but I knew from her actions how much she cared for Cameron and I, and my heart was full to the brim as we waved goodbye to her and our assistant Rebecca out of the rear window of our taxi as we sped away to catch our train.
It took some fortitude (thanks to bad suspension, speed and stomachs already in knots from the anxiety of leaving) but we made it to the train station on time and with supper still in our bellies, and boarded for a short ride to Hangzhou, followed by an overnight train westward to Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province in southwestern China. This is where I am finally finishing this post from. The overnight train is actually almost 36 hours long - it'll be the longest amount of time either of us has ever spent in a transport vehicle - but after the great 17-hour experience we had this past summer going from Hong Kong to Shanghai on the train, we had no qualms with booking ourselves a couple of soft sleeper beds to hunker down in and enjoy the view of the countryside, as well as the quiet time for reflection.
From Kunming we plan to head to a place called Tiger Leaping Gorge for some hiking and much-needed time away from city life. Acclaimed as the deepest River canyon in the world, the 2-day gorge trek is one of the most popular hiking trails in China but, unlike most top tourism destinations here, attempts to commercialize the experience so far haven't detracted anything from the absolutely stunning views of snow-capped peaks, waterfalls, and the mighty Yangtze River at its base. After that, we'll return to Kunming to get visas and board a bus that will take us south to the Vietnamese border, which we will cross by foot and then proceed to catch a train to Hanoi. From there, we'll travel the length of the country south to Ho Chi Minh city, where we'll eventually catch a flight on Jan. 31st to Bangkok. That'll be our jumping off point for a month of fun in the sun and the sea, as we plan to do a bunch of scuba diving on many of the amazing Thai islands.
Xia ci zi jian! Until next time!
Julie
