The Arrival

We made it. After months of planning, getting married, traveling to see family and friends, we made it. Here, wherever Hangzhou China is, seems so far away from worrying about how we'll pay student loans in a few months, how we'll sell our cars, making sure all of our earthly possessions are okay in a non-climate controlled storage shed in Henderson and a million other things. Now it's all on the other side of the planet, left behind with our family, close friends, Laila (our energetic yet obedient Weimerainer), and Chickfila milkshakes. After an overnight layover in Toronto (thanks to Air Canada's rescheduling of flights), we touched down at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai mid-afternoon. Our waibon (foreign affairs officer), Joy, came to pick us up, so we parted ways with our traveling buddies Kevin (my old roommate), Kris, and Michael (my sister and brother-in-law). It's strange leaving people you love not knowing where any of you are going nor how to contact each other except by email--and that without knowing if/when you'll have Internet access. (we referred to it as the radio silence on the dark side of the moon)

Joy is a very bubbly, energetic individual that has amazing English for a waibon. She welcomed us heartily--even hugging Rebecca, not a cultural trait typical of Chinese--and showed us to our car at the pick up curb. It was a newer model Volkswagon Jetta, which would have been great except Joy wasn't driving (she doesn't have a license--which is common among Chinese). So we had another woman who was a professional driver for our university, as well as the three of us,two hardshell Samsonite suitcases and to military duffelbags stuffed to capacity--in the Jetta. Both tiny Chinese women refused to let me help out of courtesy as they attempted to arrange 200 pounds of baggage, with enough room for the four of us. The end result put both Chinese women up front with Rebecca and I stuffed in the back, divided
by a wall of duffel bags, and two Samsonite hardshells hanging out of the trunk (plus our carry-on backpacks resting cozily in our laps). It was a long two hour ride to Hangzhou listening to the history of Hangzhou and our new university, all the while fighting the first stages of jet lag.

It was dark when we got into Hangzhou proper, and we were ready to stretch our legs, drop our bags, and sleep. However, that's not what our new hosts had in mind. In the course of our conversation, they had learned that I was fond of noodles, so our determined to find me some noodles before we retired. The driver was a Hangzhou native and relayed through Joy that she new a good place close to campus. Wearily we tried to politely decline, but realized it was in
the best interest of our new diplomatic relationship to accept, at which point we were met by Joy's colleague Frank, who also served as one of our FAOs. They ordered us pickled bamboo shoots and some sweet and sour fish--a dish that looks worse than it tastes. Poor Rebecca had a rough first experience with Chinese cuisine as they accidentally
brought her out a noodle dish she did NOT order, topped with dried fish (not fillets, full fish- bones, scales, and all!) after making it through dinner in a jet-lagged stupor, they delivered us to our apartment, only for us to realize that it was NOT located on the campus where we would be teaching, close to our students and friends teaching at other universities. Instead, we were in downtown Hangzhou, with no sense of direction, no one to make contact with, and no Internet. So we did the only thing we knew to do at 8:30pm on our first night in Hangzhou. We went to sleep.