Outside of the confines of comfort

No class today due to the Mid-Autumn Festival yesterday. I met Matthew at the North Gate at 9AM. We took a bus to the outer rim of the city(Chengdu). This was definitely not as nice as the central parts of the city or the where my school is located. I experiencd a lot of culture shock here. The first time for me to really feel uncomfortable in Asia since my arrival in Guilin when I got to see the purple lights of prostitution houses.

This area was especially ghetto/sketchy, though. I'm used to getting weird looks in Asia but usually they are,"Wow, a white person" type like and not a "I'm going to stab you and take your money" type of look. Luckily, Matthew is a pretty big guy(he breaks the Asian stereotype).

We had to walk through this area for a while to get to another big bus station to take a bus outside of the city. We went down sketchy back alleys and streets. One street was just shops selling sexual merchandise, mostly pornography. I quickly found that I should stop looking into the shops. It was rather disturbing and somewhat violating. Little kids were running around playing like it was nothing.

At the bus station, we paid hardly anything to take an hour long bus ride 20 miles out of Chengdu to a smaller town. I was even more out of place here. Everything was very dusty, especially the road. Matthew and I went to the nicest hotel in town for lunch and tea while we waited an hour or so for Ding Laoshi. Although it was the nicest hotel, and very nice compared to everything else I saw, it was only $50USD a night. While we ate, sipped on green tea, and waited, I took advantage of the time to get my Chinese homework out and study. I also liked to ask Matthew questions about China. Matthew works for non-profit here in China that does mostly counseling and other things.

Finally, Ding Laoshi's driver pulled up with her and two other people in the back seat. Matthew and I crammed in. We drove even farther out into the countryside, but not too far. We were meeting the Xie family. Finally we found the place. Their house was down a long cracked cement path with fruit trees all around. It looked like a big old shed. It was split up into four or five living spaces. Their house had cement floors and old small furniture, but we were grateful guests. They poured us more tea. I had to be careful with the table my drink was sitting on because it was wobbly.

Everyone gave a short introduction introducing themselves. I tried my best to deliver what I had to say in Chinese. I got all my information across but it wasn't perfect. I just tried hard to show them that I was trying but in a very humble way. It was good chance to practice my Chinese. The boy and I had exchanged numbers the other day when we had first met so we had been sending messages back and forth for the last couple of days. It really touched me when he said that his friendship with me was really motivating for him to practice his English - something he thought was so difficult before but now he thinks that it's fun and easy. My eyes welled up and I had to wipe them dry. It's just grace that I may have that impact on him.

Matthew and I went to the bus station way far out. It was super crowded. People were pushing and shoving like it was the end of the world. Luckily, Matthew and I are bigger and stronger than the majority of the people. We muscled our way through the crowd to find ourselves standing at the back of a long line waiting to get on a bus back to Chengdu. We would finally succeed. After an hour on the bus, we would arrive back in the sketchy outskirts of Chengdu. Maybe it was just the time of day(5 or 6pm) but it seemed especially busy and ghetto. A small girl was just peeing on the sidewalk. I wish I hadn't seen that but I nearly ran into her walking with the crowd. Everything in this part of town just seemed so filthy and vile. I'm not trying to put the people down, I just felt REALLY out of my comfort zone.

Some more walking, another bus, and some more walking and I would arrive back at Sichuan University.