Home sweet home

China has certainly been an adventure so far, but as far as adventures go, things can only be so crazy when, no matter what happens, there are 100 people just like you back at the hotel. It is an entirely different experience when all the people that remind you of home are at the other end of the phone line or internet cable.
Its hard to describe the feeling I had in my stomach as I rode away from the hotel with Mrs. Huang and her husband. It was kind of like a tightening knot of excitement and curiosity and sheer terror. I didn't know whether to cry or laugh or just stare off into space...though I quickly settled on staring off into space, as it was the easiest to do.
After driving for about a half an hour we got to the area of Longgang where the school is and Mrs. Huang had her husband drive around for a little bit so I could see the area. Immediately surrounding the school is a factory that makes most of the eyeglasses sold in the world, various types of housing, a handful of stores and street vendors, and a lot of construction. There is clearly a lot of poverty in this area because of the factory workers, but buildings and arenas for the 2011 Universitad will literally be across the street from the school, so apparently this neighborhood's days are numbered. Not all of the housing is bad though, some of the teachers live off-campus in nearby buildings and those buildings look alright ("alright"on the scale of China housing, of course). The downtown area is about 10 minutes from the school via public bus and it has a decent amount of department-type stores, restaurants, and grocery stores. Because I mentioned my deep love for black coffee (which you cannot find in China), I was also shown the two coffee shops in town. I have not tried either yet, but I'm not holding my breath because I'm sure it will either be the Chinese idea of coffee (cream and sugar...blech!) or too expensive to be worth the habit. It didn't take too long to see the highlights of downtown Longgang, so we quickly pulled up to the school grounds, drove through the security gate, and Mrs. Huang said, "welcome home!" We pulled my stuff out of the car and lugged it up the the 6th floor and into room 603.

The view from my balcony

My first impression of my room was similar to my first impression of many places in China: why is everything always dirty and just a little bit wet? There was a small puddle of water in the middle of a dirty room with a tile floor and filthy walls. The bed is a bunk bed with a mattress on top (dirty from the air conditioner above it, of course) and one of those "mattresses"that's really a board on the bottom. There is a "closet" that's really a free-standing wardrobe (the kind that zips closed), the "kitchen" is a metal table with a microwave and a hot-plate, and across the room is a refrigerator and a desk. On the balcony there is a washing machine (which, from what I hear, mostly eats clothes) and a rack for drying your clothes (no one has a clothes drier in China). The bathroom is very small and the "shower" is just a hand-held shower head hanging on one of the walls with a drain in the middle of the room.

My dormitory

The closet

The kitchen

The study

I was instructed to "sit and have a rest" (I am given this order a lot around here) while these four people set to work on this apartment. After a brief flurry of activity, the bathroom was cleaned, the floors were swept and mopped, my bed was set up and they were leaving me with the promise that "maybe after some minutes have passed we'll be back". And then, I was alone.
I started to go through my things and unpack, deciding that this place really isn't so bad when it's cleaner. I put all my clothes away and did a load of laundry (a "load" of laundry is different when you wash your clothes in the sink). As promised, Mrs. Huang reappeared after some minutes had passed and handed me a few bags of groceries (including some coffee - cream and sugar already added of course) and told me that dinner is at 5:30, and she would see me tomorrow because she does not live at the school. A little bit later there was another knock at the door, and this time I was greeted by a the principal, Mr. James, and the small woman whose job it is to follow around any man who is visiting a female teacher's dormitory. He was very nice and asked how I liked the room and told me to make sure and talk to him if I had any problems or needed anything. I must say, based on the things I have heard about Chinese headmasters, I was pretty impressed that he made a house call on my first day!
As instructed, I had a little rest until about 5:30 when I wandered down to the "canteen" for dinner. I'm not really sure why it's called that, but I think it has to do with the fact that the Chinese word for cafeteria is can1ting1. Anyway, I walk into the canteen and am immediately greeted by about 6 people who do not speak English. A man appears out of nowhere who claims to be an English teacher (though we were still not able to communicate particularly well) and he tries to help me. I'll spare you the painful details of my learning curve on this one, but basically the way the canteen works is this: you have your own dishes that you can keep in a cupboard in the dining area, every meal you put rice and some vegetables and clear broth into your dishes and the lunch lady adds a few ladlefuls of whatever the main dishes are. When you have finished eating you wash your dishes in a trough outside and put your dishes back into the cupboard. Theoretically, the dishes inside the cupboard are disinfected between meals...but this is China, so who knows.
After dinner I headed back upstairs and decided to take a shower, watch some Chinese television, and call it a night. This plan was quickly foiled when I realized that the biggest towel in my possession was the size of a kitchen hand towel. The sleeping thing also didn't go so well because it turns out my air conditioner was broken. Eventually I got to sleep, and as I write this a few days later, I have since had the air conditioner fixed, acquired a towel, and taken a shower...but I'll save the shower story for another time.

The bathroom

This ain't yo mamma's Wally World...

There is a very specific smell that hits you when you walk into a store in China. I have no idea how to describe it and I don't know why they all smell like that, but it is distinct.
I shouldn't have been surprised that the Wal-Mart in Shenzhen had that smell, but it seemed so familiarly "Wal-Mart-ish" that I was not expecting it. The store has all the normal components: a special section to buy glasses and get your eyes checked in the front, a large make-up and toiletries section, books, food, kitchen wares, large and small appliances, clothes, and those familiar blue signs with white block print.
We had two hours to spend at the store, and it took me the entire first hour to figure out how to get a cell phone that would work. It took another large game of English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone with Serena leading the way yet again, but we eventually figured it out and I now have a cell-phone that is the technological equivalent to the cell phone I had when I was 16. But, the important this is that it works and the whole thing only cost 440kuai (about $67).
The only thing I needed other than the phone was some conditioner and something cold to drink, so that left me with an hour to explore the store. The first floor is mostly books and toiletries, so I started out looking around the book section. I considered buying a kids book (because I am, after all, illiterate), but chickened out. Next I headed over to the hair-care section and it took me all of 30 seconds to realize that finding conditioner was going to be kind of hard, so I decided to put it off for a little bit and go to the second floor.
Now, because this is Wal-Mart and you generally need a shopping cart to get everything you need, there's an "escalator" that is really just a ramp to take you to the second floor. I think this is a good idea in theory, but considering I was carrying nothing except my rather empty purse and STILL nearly tumbled backwards down the thing, it might not be the greatest idea ever...at least not at that angle anyway.The second floor is where all the food is. At first it looked pretty normal (well, "normal" in the sense that it looked like the other Chinese grocery stores I've been to). There's a bakery and a snack foods area, the produce section is well-stocked and the masked people who man the produce and bulk scales are standing around looking bored as usual. There is a section to buy ready-to eat stuff (kind of like the deli section in the US), and aisles of frozen foods, drink stuff, and other pre-packaged Chinese foods. And then, there is the fresh-foods section.
The first thing I noticed upon walking into this section was the sausages hanging on the wall. These sausages kind of look like some sort of scat you would see in the woods, and I hear that they are very good...but that is not the point. The point is that they were hanging on the wall without any sort of packaging or wrapping whatsoever. After the initial shock of this wore off I realized that the same went for all kinds of dried fish-looking items and other meats that were cured in some way. It doesn't seem very sanitary to me that random people are brushing up against your food, but then again, China in general is not particularly sanitary...and it turns out that wasn't even the worst of it! The next thing I noticed was a woman using a colander to scoop live crawdad-looking creatures (they were probably shrimp, I guess) out of a large tank. Next to that was another tank with a floating colander and LIVE FROGS (well, except for the one floater). Next to that tank was a block of shaved ice that had dead squid sitting on top in a pile. I continued to wander this fascinating and horrifying section and saw tanks of large fish and turtles, big chunks of very fresh meat, another block of ice piled high with chicken feet, and a section to buy pieces of animals...like fish heads. After circling this area three or four times, I decided that I was done being a gawking foreigner, and since I was not going to be making a purchase, it was time to move along. I spent very little time on the third floor because, well, it was boring. So after a quick lap I headed back downstairs to the first floor. I decided that it was time to face the music: I had to find conditioner.
Standing in the shampoo aisle I truly felt what it means to be illiterate. There is a lot of writing...a lot. Bottles are covered in words that are supposed to be catching my attention and making me want to buy their product, but since I can't read them, all they do is confuse me. Luckily I have bought hair products before, so I know that most companies put their shampoo and conditioner in similar but different-looking bottles. I went from shelf to shelf comparing similar-looking bottles to try and find some small difference that might be the word "shampoo" on one and "conditioner" on the other. The aisle had a sign that said "shampoo" in English under the Chinese characters for the same (presumably), but even that served to be little help. After several minutes of me staring at bottles like a monkey doing a math problem, a nice saleswoman saw me and tried to come to my rescue.
I say "tried" because she doesn't speak English and I clearly do not have a firm grasp on Chinese. After she tried to explain in Chinese and I tried to ask a question in English, the conversation that finally got me my answer went as follows (roughly translated):
me: "This one and this one the same?" (pointing to two bottles)
her: "Not the same" (also adding some information in Chinese I had no hope of understanding)
me: "This one and this the same?" (pointing the the one I thought was shampoo and the sign that said "shampoo")
her: nodded yes
me: "Thank you! I want this" (followed by me all but running out of the aisle with the alleged conditioner)
By the time that was all squared away it was time to go back to the hotel. By coincidence, it was also the time the sky decided to open up and pour down a few inches of rain. This phenomenon of beautiful weather, then torrential rains, followed by beautiful weather again all within a couple of hours, is completely foreign to me. Coming from the Midwest, we see weather coming for days before it actually hits, and while sometimes it fluctuates quite a bit from day-to-day, it just doesn't compare to the hour-to-hour fluctuations here.
After running around in ankle-deep puddles in the pouring rain, we eventually found our bus and made it back to the hotel. I was soaked to the bone, but I had my new cell phone and my Chinese conditioner (at least I think its conditioner), so all in all it was a successful day.

Two of these are conditioner, one is hand soap, and one is shampoo...I think

Welcome to China!

I think it is fair to assume that most people are fascinated by (or at least somewhat curious about) other cultures, but generally distrusting of the people themselves. The Chinese are no different, and for this reason I spent yesterday morning in a hospital and the afternoon in a police station.
Now, if you just read that sentence and assumed I was being treated for alcohol poisoning and then charged for disorderly conduct, shame on you! I've only been here for two weeks, and there's been no time for things like that. Rather, we were getting the health exam that is required for all non-Shenzhen citizens who want to work there, and registering with the police station in the district we are going to be living in.
Walking into this Shenzhen hospital was sort of like walking into a hospital in a 1970's movie. It's clean and the staff is friendly, but everything feels a little...well, retro. The nurses are wearing dresses and those little triangle-looking hats (although their outfits are pink rather than white) and they speak just enough English to order us around. The hallways are long and narrow and lined with wooden benches. Each room is designated for one specific purpose and is outfitted with a sink, a table, some old-fashioned looking machines, and little else.
Before arriving at the hospital we were separated into groups and each person was given a little booklet with spaces for the doctors to fill in our information about each test. The idea was that each group would do one kind of test at a time and switch tasks as a group until all groups had done all the tests, rather than having a free-for-all with all 115 of us lining up for 10 rooms in one narrow hallway. Upon arrival to the hospital, however, it took all of 10 minutes for the group idea to fall apart and the melee to commence.
The first thing I did was get my blood drawn and was given my marked cup for the urine test I was to take at some point. Getting the blood drawn was no problem (I'll get back to the urine test), and from there I went on to the EKG line. For this test I walked in and laid down and was instructed to raise my left pant leg to my knee and my shirt "over the bra". The nurse swabbed something on my wrists, my ankles, and my ribs and put these clamp things on. After feeling like Frankenstein for a couple of minutes, she let me get up and handed me a print out of my heart rate (which was normal, but indicated I was somewhat nervous...go figure). After grabbing a quick bite to eat to avoid passing out after my pre-blood test fast I hopped into the (very long) ultrasound line.
At this point it is getting to be 9am or so and there are Chinese citizens starting to show up for whatever testing they are getting (I'm sure they took one look at our hallway and thought "why me, why today?!"), so now, not only are we contending with each other to get all of our tests done, we are also having to keep away from all the line-cutting Chinese. After being ultrasounded, x-rayed, weighed, measured, and otherwise poked and prodded it was time to take my measuring cup downstairs for the urine test.
In case you've never done one, a urine test in the US usually consists of you being sent into a single bathroom with a cup (and a lid) and told to put it on a certain shelf when you are done. Not in China. First of all, I was given this cup with no lid at the start of my testing, which means I was carrying it around with me for about an hour before I actually peed into it. Second, there is no specific bathroom for this test, you just stand in line and pee in a stall in the regular bathroom. Third, there is no "certain shelf" where these cups are placed, there is a wheeled cart that is placed in the hallway outside of the bathroom where everyones pee is just sitting right there next to everyone elses. If you are starting to think that this seems very unsanitary, it gets worse. This "regular bathroom" we are all using is a Chinese "regular bathroom", which means there is a hole-in-the-floor toilet, no toilet paper, and no soap at the sinks. Luckily some of us remembered to bring our kleenex and hand sanitizer, so the amount of urine that was exchanged was kept to a bare minimum.
When all was said and done, it only took a couple of hours for the whole process and we were all so glad that we were allowed to leave the OB/GYN portion blank that the rest of the ordeal seemed pretty painless.

We eventually made it back to the hotel and had a couple of hours to eat and relax before heading off to the police station. I will be living in the Longgang district, which is one of the more outer districts, so the bus ride there took about an hour. When we got to the police station we were taken upstairs to some sort of foreigner detaining/interrogation room and told to sit and wait. There was another foreigner sitting at the table in this room when we got there, and we overheard just enough of his interview to know that his visa expired in 2005 and he is in a lot of trouble.
After about 40 minutes the policeman showed up and handed us our passports, and a card with some laws that foreigners need to follow and sent us on our way. We made sure to read the card on the way back and were very disappointed to find out that it is against the law for foreigners to be "overly drunk" and engage in prostitution and whoring while in Shenzhen.
All in all it was a crazy day, but like we keep saying, "Welcome to China!"

A game of English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone

Let me start off by saying this: massages in China are amazing. They cost about 10 US dollars for an hour...and that is the pricey place!
Anyway, we have been to this spa a couple times by now, and my friend Serena and I have sort of befriended this one guy named Xiao Yang (which means "little sheep"). Last night we decided to go hang out with him and his friends and try to see some of Zhuhai that we might not be able to find otherwise.
The adventure started when Serena, another foreigner named Lori, and I took a cab to a part of town that has a bunch of shopping and some bars. As soon as I got out of the cab, Xiao Yang pops out of nowhere and says "Hello!" (which, by the way, is about as much English as he knows). I jumped out of my skin, which he found hilarious, and he proceeded to lead us down the street telling us that he's taking us to a Mah Jong place where there are some people who speak English. Now, before you start to think that we are just following this random Chinese dude around that we can't communicate with, let me explain: he speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and Serena speaks Cantonese pretty well. So while Lori and I can't really talk to him, Serena can.
We turn off of the main street and all of a sudden we are in old China. The street is dark and wet and very narrow with small shops and street vendors lining both sides. A little bit down the street we get to the place and are immediately greeted by "Hello! Hi! Hello! How are you!?" from about 6 Chinese people (which is the way we are usually greeted...by everyone...). We walk in and sit down with these 3 Chinese women who speak a little English and start to chat. They told us about their boyfriends and asked us where we are from, and we told them about how we are moving to Shenzhen soon, but we all really love Zhuhai. After a bit Xiao Yang shows up with some cans of stuff to drink; we tried orange soda, herbal tea, and crunchy water chesnut juice (which I actually kind of like...Lori and Serena, not so much). A little bit later we headed off down the street with Xiao Yang and his buddy - after exchanging email addresses and taking a few pictures with the women, of course. Now, as I said in my last post, we are gawked at everywhere we go...but we were a real spectacle in this part of town. Serena looks Chinese, so she blends in, but Lori and I are white and about 5'10...which fascinates them.

The street...and some random person who walked in front of my camera...

Two of our Mah Jong buddies

At the end of the street we came across a restaurant and decided to eat there. I use the term "restaurant" somewhat loosely here; it had three walls, tables and chairs, and clean table settings...but after that it was a bit crazy. On one wall there were fish tanks...not for decoration, but rather to house the food. On the other wall was the "kitchen"...which looked more like a couple of hot plates and a bunch of pots. The buddy (we never did catch his name) ordered some food that he said was "hao che" (good eating). We sat around and chatted and sipped our pijiu (beer...very useful vocabulary around here) until the food came. The first dish to arrive was shrimp...and these were not American shrimp. These suckers had eyes and legs and everything! I had no idea how I was supposed to do this, and then when I cracked it open, this brown stuff came pouring out (the guts). I was obviously turned off by this process, especially since I don't like shrimp all that much anyway, but I ate a few and was very happy when the next dish arrived. The next thing was some sort of rib meat. I picked up a piece and bit down...on a piece of rib. This was when the eating and spitting bones out commenced. It was kind of awkward at first, but the Chinese guys were doing it, so I figured I might as well do it too. The other dishes included some intestines of some sort, some vegetable stew stuff, a fish (again, eyes and tail intact) and rice. It was all really good...even if it was a bit crazy.
After dinner we headed back to the Mah Jong place where Xiao Yang ditched us to play Mah Jong while we chatted with one of the Chinese women and the buddy some more. We had talked earlier about poker, so we had the cards out and were telling each other how to say the suits in our language. After a bit this got old, so we decided to play a game.
This was when the English-Cantonese-Mandarin telephone game began. I was teaching the game (it's that version of A**hole that Kevin Price loves) in English, Serena was using Cantonese to tell the girl, who was relaying the rules to the buddy in Mandarin. It was a bit crazy and slow at first, but we eventually got the game going and it was really fun! We only had time to play a couple of rounds before we had to go, but the whole things definitely a really interesting/crazy/random/fun experience!

Xiao Yang and "the buddy"

When in Rome...

Well, things are starting to wrap up here in Zhuhai; we have finished our crash course in Chinese and the next two days are devoted to our TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) final projects. Soon we will head to Shenzhen, where we will leave the comfort of our huge group, start to settle into our new lives, and start to really learn what it's like to be a stranger in a strange land!
China is crazy. There, I said it, it's true. People sell freshly butchered animals (and I'm talking freshly...like right there in front of you) from carts on the street, little girls pee on the sidewalks (and I'm sure others do too...), crossing the street is to take your life into your own hands, and it is not uncommon to take a walk and have your senses suddenly assaulted by the smell of raw sewage for no reason whatsoever. I would say my favorite part so far is the sheer brazenness of Chinese people. People cut in line, walk right out into traffic, gawk at you, and spurt out random English phrases (my personal favorite is the guy who sells flowers by a bus stop who yells out "Hello! We friends now! I love you!" every time we walk by). These displays of chutzpah are quite intimidating at first, and the language barrier is (obviously) not helpful, but now that I'm starting to get the gist of how things work, it's kind of fun to join in!
On my first trip to the internet cafe, I stood on the side of a four-lane road and tried to wait for traffic to clear so I could cross. As it turns out, you can get old and die waiting for that, so instead you have to dart out into traffic. I'm sorry if the though of me darting into Chinese traffic makes those of you back home nervous, but let me explain: I'm really good at it. What you do is cross one lane at a time and NEVER run in front of a bus. Also, never just follow someone into the crosswalk (like we do at home), you have to pay attention for yourself or you will probably be hit by the car they are out-running. Another piece of traffic advice is to look both ways before getting off a bus. We were given this warning, but the other day I damn near got taken out by a motorcyclist who was zipping by between the curb and the bus...so I now consider this lesson well-learned!
Chinese love to gawk, and because we are very different we get stared at a lot...a lot. This was, admittedly, off-putting at first. However, now that I'm getting used to it, it's kind of nice that when I see something weird or interesting, I feel that I have every right to stare at it. I realize this is impolite and all, but it is very liberating to simply look at whatever is weird or different rather than doing as Miss Manners would do! The same goes for line-cutting; I personally do not like to cut in line, but it becomes a kind of game when someone is trying to do it to you. I have not yet been aggressively cut by someone, it's usually a much sneakier attack and mostly by old ladies at the grocery store.
At the grocery store I frequent, you have to have your fruit weighed at the fruit weigh-station, the candy weighed at the candy weigh-station, etc., rather than at the check-out. Now, the correct way to do this is to walk up and put your fruit on the scale yourself, and this is a prime line-cutting opportunity for the Chinese because of my American preference for personal space. You always know a cut is coming when you see them come up behind you slowly with their bag of stuff; your first instinct is the assume that they are joining into the awkward half-line that people in America will form when they don't know where to stand, but no. They are surveying the scene and seeing if they can get in. When they start to creep up to you, then in front of you, that's when the real game of jockeying for position begins. Luckily I have the weapon of physical size over them, so I can hold my own, but do not be fooled by these tiny women, they are tenacious!

The fine art of hole-peeing...

Well, I did it, I peed in a hole.
I knew that this day would come, but I hoped it would come a little later than day two. It's an interesting mix of anxiety and deflation when you walk into a bathroom and the first stall you come to is a hole in the ground...and so is the second...and so is the third.... After checking and double checking all four stalls to make sure there wasn't a western-style toilet hiding from me, I decided it was time to man up and do it.
It turns out that it is as hard to do this as one might think, especially since I can barely keep my balance in a squatting position anyway. I managed to splatter my feet, the legs of my pants, and even my face a little, but I did accomplish my two main goals: I did not completely saturate any part of my pants OR (thanks to my tight grip on the bottom of the stall door) fall into the hole.

The adventure begins!

View from our hotel room

Well, here it is, 4:45pm in Zhuhai and I am sitting in an odd little coffee shop/pizza joint sipping a coffee that cost 20 kuai. Today was pretty laid-back, just a little training and getting some decent (though aggressive) food in my system. I managed a few hours of sleep last night in a bed that is not much more than a board with sheets, and I think I have avoided any serious jet lag. My hotel room is nicer than I expected, even with the hard bed and lack of hair dryer :) We have a western-style toilet and more than adequate air conditioning and my roommate is pretty cool. This relatively uneventful day is in sharp contrast to the adventure of the last few days...suffice it to say that I am very pleased that I won't be on an airplane anytime soon!
My trip to China started at 4:30am Thursday, August 21st when I left my parents' house with my dad to get on a shuttle bus on the Illinois campus, and by 5:30, after a couple of tearful goodbyes, the shuttle was en route to Ohare. A few hours later we arrived at the airport, where I told the driver the incorrect terminal. No big deal though, just hop on the airport monorail, right? Kind of. It took me about 30 minutes to get on the right one because they weren't marked right; not that that's a good excuse because the monorail only goes two directions and even if you get on going the wrong way it will eventually turn around and go where you meant to go. So, after lugging my big suitcases around Ohare for a while I finally got to my ticket counter. I tell the attendant that I am going to Hong Kong; she promptly disappears and I heard the first whispers of a cancelled flight. The attendant reappears a few minutes later and directs me to another line, which as far as I can tell is the same line I was just in. I do as I'm told and a few minutes later I get up the the counter again and this time am told that because of a typhoon hitting Hong Kong, there will be no flight today. She slightly upgrades my seat, hands me a ticket that says the flight is at noon the next day and tells me that the flight is at 9am. Luckily for me I did bring my phone with me fort his leg of the trip, so I was able to call my aunt Rita who got off of work as soon as she could and we spent the afternoon chatting and drinking white wine.
The next morning I got up at about 6am and called the United Airlines number which confirmed that my noon flight was running on-time. However, because the ticket counter woman had said 9am I decided to go ahead to the airport, figuring that the worst case scenario would be that I spent the entire morning at the airport. Inside the terminal I checked my bag where I was told AGAIN that the one and only flight that day was at noon. I got through security without an issue and got to my gate only to find out that my flight was indeed at 9am and we were to board at approximately 8:15am. We board the plan pretty much on time, but then proceed to sit there for nearly an hour as the luggage people remove the bags of the people who changed their minds about taking this flight - I found out later that most (if not all) of those people had changed their flight the day before and yet United still put their bags on the plane. But, no worries, we took off and it was smooth sailing for about 13 hours. I slept alright on the plane, I ate some food and watched not one, but two Jack Black movies and was figuring that this wasn't so bad. Oh how wrong I was. About two hours from our intended landing time we were told that because of conditions in Hong Kong, the airport is not open and because we don't have enough fuel to circle for the amount of time they told us, we have to stop off in Taipei to refuel and wait for the airport to reopen.
At 3pm, one hour after we were supposed to land in Hong Kong (and 46.5 hours after I left my parents house) we landed in Taipei. We sat there for long enough to watch another entire movie (no Jack Black this time), and I figure that even though I never got off the plane (or even looked out the window, for that matter) I can count Taiwan as one of the countries I have officially visited. A couple hours later we were in the air again and headed for Hong Kong. This flight was fairly short and we only had to circle once in the air over the airport before landing. The plane landed and taxied to the gate without a hitch, the 'fasten seat belt' light went off and everyone grabbed their stuff and stood in line to leave. An hour later they actually let us off the plane. By the time all was said and done we had been in that aircraft for a total of 22 hours.
In the airport we had to do the normal customs thing and money exchanging, then we sat around and waited for...well, I don't know what exactly we were waiting for, but it took a long time. Eventually we got onto our bus and took off. At the Hong Kong/mainland border we had to get off the bus, go through a checkpoint, and get back off the bus. We then had to cross a bridge, get off the bus again (this time will all of our luggage), fight our way through a customs scanner, then head out to wait for the bus. Somehow I was the first of the group to make it through customs and out to the bus area, where I was greeted by very enthusiastic Chinese man who wanted to help me with my bags and blow cigarette smoke in my face, though he could not understand a word I said (nor could I understand anything he said). Finally the group all trickled in and we stood around en masse waiting for heavens only knows what, for an hour or so before we got onto some bus to head to the hotel. I tried to go to the bathroom during this extended wait, only to find that the bathroom had the charming hole-in-the-ground toilets. I understand that I will probably have to figure out how to use these one of these days, but I was not interested in discovering the fine art of hole-peeing at 1am in a customs station.The ride to the hotel took a couple of hours and by the time we got back to the hotel it was nearly 3am. So, if I have run the numbers correctly, it took me 58 hours from start to finish to get to Zhuhai. As the Chinese teacher put it "it wasn't a pleasant time, but it will be very memorable."