Don't Stop This Train

It doesn’t seem like 8 days ago, we were in Shanghai. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been in Loudi this long. I’m not even fully moved in. My clothes are still strewn all over my bedroom floor. My luggage is sitting at the foot of my bed, still crammed with things. But that’s the way of it, I guess. Moving in somewhere is always a long process, especially when that place is the complete other side of the world.

Shanghai was an amazing place. It felt very much like a large city, but not uncomfortably so. I feel like there are still areas there that I could navigate by myself. Although, once we were up in the Jin Mao Tower, I felt so small. The city reminds me of the ocean; there is no end in sight.

I’ve never seen so many bikes and mopeds in my life! And what you hear about the smog is right. But honestly, I’m much more scared to cross the street in Loudi than I ever was in Shanghai. Really puts you in your place, though, when a little Chinese grandma just saunters across the very VERY busy and rushing street without even checking if a car is coming. And she makes it across fine, because the Chinese are experts at last-minute decisions. Or maybe they just have one thing in mind, as Tony pointed out, “I’m going. And that’s it.” Either way, whenever we reach a street that has to be crossed, my heart starts racing and I immediately start looking both ways (like it’s going to help), grab Tony’s hand, and step out into oblivion. “Ok God, it’s up to You now.”

As Shanghai is now in the past, let me introduce you to Loudi. A city of 200,000 (or around 1 million—we haven’t been able to get a straight answer), Loudi manages to convince you that it’s huge when you are in the heart of it. The buildings shoot straight up just like Shanghai, and at night the city is blazing with lights. The streets are constantly crowded, and like I’ve pointed out before, the honking here is just as loud as Shanghai and the taxis and buses are even more reckless. In reality, the main area of Loudi covers about 5 or 6 real streets, minus alleyways. The rest of the city is taken up by the steel factory, which thankfully I haven’t even seen since we’ve been here. I have, however, seen an obscene amount of Wal-Mart (almost daily).

My apartment is on the 6^th floor of our building. I have a bedroom, an office, a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and balcony. It’s a great space, but like all new apartments, some things are in need of repair. As of now, I have a propane tank under my countertop in the kitchen but no stovetop to hook it to. There is a broken window in my bathroom, although that space has gotten better every day (thank you Mr. Muscle cleaner!). These things are obviously really small, not anything to really worry about. We’ve told the people at the school about them, and they promise to start fixing them, starting perhaps today. Internet is very intermittent here. As of right now, actually, I’m writing this entry in Microsoft Word because I can’t get anything to pull up. Just another part of life here, I suppose. I have been getting homesick lately, but I think that’s just part of it too. At least, that’s how I’m trying to look at it. Face the fact that it’s there and just move past it. The title of this blog comes from the song “Stop This Train” by John Mayer. And it really puts what I’m feeling into perspective. To help ease homesickness, Tony and I have eaten our past two dinners at KFC. It’s the only really Western restaurant in Loudi. We, according to the internet, have a McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. According to Loudi and real life, we don’t have either of those places. Only a very Chinese KFC and a very Chinese Wal-Mart. Which is great, but not when you are homesick.

The Wal-Mart is part of this strip of stores in the middle of Loudi. There are at least three streets that are blocked from cars and bikes. It is lined with clothing stores of all types. Even Playboy has a store on these streets—they sell shoes, hats, pants, shirts. It was the most bizarre thing. I saw a girl in Shanghai with a clutch that had the look of a Louie Vitton bag, except it was Playboy. The clothes here are really great, leaving out the Playboy store of course. I walked into a couple of stores just to browse the racks and immediately was greeted by the workers in the store, following me around offering me different dresses and shirts. I’m a little worried that my big American frame is too large for cute Chinese clothes. They are so petite and skinny! Emily found some cute clothes, but she’s small and petite too! I’m not overly worried though. I’ve already lost some weight from a steady diet of rice and walking. Hopefully in a month or so I’ll be sporting some great new clothes.

Every morning in Loudi I am woken up around 8:30 either by a loud display of fireworks—which are shot off for any celebratory thing and I do mean any--or, more recently, music played over a loudspeaker on campus. This morning it was Taps.

Tony and I feel slightly like celebrities here. More often than not we are stared at for a while, which doesn’t bother us in the least. We stare back. I was washing dishes in Tony’s kitchen the other day when a woman walked past on the sidewalk. She caught the sight of me through the windows over the sink and literally starting walking backward. She stopped right at the kitchen window and stared at me for a good 20 seconds. I stared right back. When I finally started to smile at her, she began to walk again. Two days ago, walking home from the store, a group of girls walked past us giggling. Once past us, one turned around and shouted “Hello!” Tony and I turned around and said, “Ni hao!” They all giggled and ran off. I can’t wait to have students. I really want to start talking to the people who live here.

Yesterday on the walk to Wal-Mart, we noticed many people setting small fires along the street. I know that traditional Chinese culture rooted in Buddhism teaches that if you burn writings or paper, it will reach your ancestors in the afterlife; at least that’s what I’ve read, and I hope I’ve gotten the facts of that correct. We researched these small fires online slightly and discovered that this month is Ghost Month. The Gates of Hell open this week and the inhabitants are free to wander the earth. Many villages have different traditions associated with this month. Some fishing villages float lanterns while others climb towers to “fight” with the ghosts. All the traditions are accompanied by the burning of ghost paper—little booklets made out of bamboo. Many Loudi citizens participate in this tradition. I wish I could speak more Chinese; I would absolutely love to talk to some of the people I see burning this paper on the street and ask them exactly what they believe.

There are some other very quirky, wonderful things about Loudi that I am just dying to tell you about, but I have this feeling that I won’t be believed unless you see proof. I also have a whole slew of lesson plans to work out somehow. I have to make a teaching plan for the entire semester before I start teaching on the 9^th. So until next time, zaijian.