Life with Chinese Characteristics, Chapter 1: The Typhoon

It is noon on Tuesday and I am sitting on a chair in my hotel room watching the rain outside of the window as I sip my imported Earl Grey tea. We had a full day of hospital visits and Bayside campus exploring on the agenda, but all of the day’s activities have been canceled. I thought that my first post from China would be about some culinary experience (and not just the one you can have by buying sushi flavored potato chips at 7 Eleven), but it seems that Chinese Surprise first hit not in the form of some wicked stomach bug, but in the form of a typhoon. It tackled Hong Kong hard and then made its very, very windy way to Shenzhen. This is China living, friends. This is welcome to your new home. I left Ecuador, land of earthquake and volcano drills, for the land of heavy, heavy rain. South America did help me to acquire a bit more “go-with-the-flow-ness,” though, so I am rather enjoying this day where I slept in later, worked out, Facetimed with Linds, and have since putzed around the hotel room. 

I tried to capture the typhoon that I watched with wide eyes at breakfast, and while I was in the workout room, but these photos do it no justice. I fear I would have been blown to Hong Kong if I had stepped into the wind … or at least quite seriously to the bayside. It was both fascinating and frightening …

Check out the tree on the right and you will notice how the wind is bending it.

When school is called for rain and wind ...

The employees were holding all of the doors shut.

… but this day off has given me some hours to reflect on the first days. Since arriving into Hong Kong and crossing over the border into Shenzhen late Saturday night, I have done a number of things.

To begin, I stayed up for 60 hours. This actually began with not sleeping on the flight over, and then laying wide awake Saturday night … not a wink of sleep to be had. Have I ever known such misery? I suppose, but jet lag is positively wicked. 

The lack of sleep in tandem with the apprehension, excitement and anxiety that comes with beginning anew has led me to be a world class bather. I don’t even usually like baths, but boy am I glad to have packed Epsom salt and essential oils. Add hot water to those two and you’ve got a triple threat against aching feet and tense muscles. 

More delightfully I have met a couple of dozen new people and I am entirely tickled by these new faces. The crew I have come in with is a diverse bunch, both in age and passport country. There are a couple of us single folks, several families and a couple of empty nesters. We come from not just the States originally, but Britain, Sweden, Brazil, France, Myanmar and South Africa. 

We were all greeted by bouquets of roses and a bag of groceries in our hotel rooms. I have happily snacked through a bag of mini Snickers in the past four days. Food is good, but friends are even better, and I am certain that there are so many good souls amidst the new crowd and the returning teachers and staff at SIS. People are bending over backwards to help us feel comfortable and welcome and settled.

And indeed I found a place to call home here! After 27 apartments viewings, I walked into a 17th floor one bedroom that houses furniture that matches and does not have curious aromas. After more than four hours of house hunting, it felt like a notable victory. 

These days have certainly been a pendulum swinging between What have I done with my life? to I make very wise adult decisions. And so it goes … and will continue to be for the coming weeks … and likely months. I am relishing in the fact that my sanity feels quite stable today. Those other country-hoppers out there know just what I mean …

I am off to see who might be hanging out in the lobby here. Signing off from Shenzhen, sending love and hugs to all of my people at home and abroad.