So as easy as James made it sound to get to language school, he forgot to factor in bus drivers who don't stop at your stop. No, in fact not only was my stop missed, but the driver turned a corner and drove past another four or five stops, before I managed to get off (heart pounding and palms sweating at the thought of getting lost in Beijing). It may not sound like a big deal until you know that every single building and intersection looks the same and that the distance between their bus stops is a good three or four times greater than in Winnipeg. "How far do I go back before I turn the corner?" "Was it really as long as it felt or was I so uptight that it just felt like a long time?" Well, it turned out to be exactly as long as I felt and it took me a good long while to walk back (I did manage to get to right!). In the meantime I called James on our new and extremely necessary cellphones and told him the situation. "Where am I? I think I know where I am? I'll call if I am completely lost".
You may be asking yourself how I managed to get a picture of myself looking so worried on the bus. Well, as evidenced by Jude's presence in the picture, you can see it was from another bus, another the day (the fateful bus-vomit day). But I thought you might enjoy an amusing picture of me shaking like leaf as I almost got lost in Beijing.
We are currently reading Charlotte's Web with Ari. Chapter 1 introduced some big new words like "injustice", because Fern was "ridding the world of injustice". I tried to explain that unjust was if he or Jude get punished for something they did not do. The next day James thought Ari was playing with the TV and said his name in a warning voice. I then told Ari that might be a good example of something that is injust (James felt slightly sabotaged by that). But now ofcourse, Ari is enjoying pointing out all the things to us that he thinks are unjust. "Mommy thats injust!". What was I thinking?
One funny anecdote: Ari said nihao (nee how or hello) to a little Chinese girl on the playground yesterday. She looked at him in confusion and said "Hello?". One of the very very few English speakers we've met! Ari was baffled!
4 comments:
Hey Jess,
I feel your pain, I got lost a couple of times as well.. thankfully I new how to say the street name of my apartment and taxis are about half the price in Xi'an as they are in Beijing or I would have been up the proverbial creek so to speak...
Jess, this picture of you is quite amusing. Well done, even though at the time you had no idea it would so fittingly capture future adventures!
Look on the bright side: you may have gotten lost in a strange country with no real idea of whether you'd ever find your way back home, but at least you didn't have to shovel a concrete lump disguised as a snow drift that was created during a howling blizzard with zero visibility and -43 degree windchills.
Actually, if I'd been in your situation, I probably would have curled up into the fetal position and wept like a baby, so I guess I will have to concede that your life is currently more complicated (and interesting) than mine. *SIGH* That was painful.
Reese you are hilarious! I can only assume by your comment that you burned many calories trying to accomplish the feat you described. Bravo! You provided me with a very funny mental image!
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