Saturday, September 18, 2010

A Horrendous Departure



I wanted to share with you my most recent adventures in Shanghai. I chose Shanghai to end my China travels because I’ve always wanted to go there.  More specifically, I wanted to see the iconic Pearl Tower.  (There are unfortunate events related to that topic but we won't dwell on that.)

I packed up my household, put it all in three suitcases, checked out with my Foreign Affairs lady and headed out to catch my flight--an international flight.  All in one day. Not recommended. This is especially not recommended if one must travel the day before to do errands and only start packing up after midnight.   Add to this the intensity of saying goodbye, spending time with friends and having an apartment inspection, and you have disaster!

It made me wonder if I should go.   I was literally emptying the contents of my desk drawers into trash bags that I could sort out on the bus.   I ran out of time to pack-up.   I had 3 taxi drivers mad at me in one day and I found antennae-waving cockroaches two inches from my head in an airbus that took me to the plane.  The only word to describe this whole experience was ‘horrendous’ with a capital HORROR.

That's just the general overview.   I started my journey by rolling two huge suitcases--one whose handle broke on the way down my apartment steps--a backpack weighing more than the rolling suitcases, a purse, a computer and three shopping bags to a waiting taxi.   This only is told to give an idea of my immense relief at the present moment as I am relaxing in the most lovely of Chinese hostels, hoping to find that Shanghai Golden you always hear about. 

1 comment:

  1. Hi, I stumbled on your blog while doing some research on the Guangdong School. I have been offered a music teacher position and my fiance was offered an ESL position with them for next Fall. I was just curious to see if you could relay any specific information about working with this school or living in China in general. my email is barisax999@yahoo.com.

    ReplyDelete