Restless Farewell

This sounds like the bonus question in an elementary math book.

 

Question: In thirteen hours Eric left one place the other day and arrived at a new place three hours before he left the other place.   How did Eric do this? 

 

Answer: Eric left Beijing and flew against the rotation of the earth (the earth actually rotates counter-clockwise…who knew) and arrived in LA three hours before he left.  Eric literally wasted no time.  So much happened in no time at all. *Tyler also flew with Eric and Tyler also gained three hours.

 

My throat was dry and everyone was sleeping so I thought I’d get up, walk around and drink some water.  I was making small talk with the flight attendant in the back of the plane… we were using my broken Chinese and her broken English…she was very sweet and tired.  While talking with her I noticed a window down by the beverage cart.  You see, every window on the plane was closed and my seat was in the middle section of the plane so I hadn’t had a chance to look out the window, I love looking out the window while flying so I thought I would give this one a shot.  Despite being childish I bent down took a knee (Cole Small style) and slid the shutter up and it about killed me I turned away as my pupils contracted.  The plane had been in sleep mode for hours and I was unaware of the fact that we were flying in the middle of the day… I was disoriented.  To make things worse I was unaware that we were flying over a dessert of snow.  I looked at the map and we were above Siberia and let me tell you that Siberia is something that no man should ever be able to see with his own eyes.  It is simply too cold and desolate.  I timidly brought my eyes back to the window.  I was awed at the sheer beauty and vastness of such a place.  I was probably more baffled at the fact that I can’t even conceive of a reason for having such an unpractical and un-useful place as Siberia.  What is the reason for having miles and miles of uninhabitable snow?  I shalt not understand such mysteries.  And then as I kept thinking about it, I began to be amazed at the capabilities of man.  Man is not supposed to fly.  But here I was flying… I was flying over a very cold place that I could never live in.  My fellow passengers were sleeping, talking to their neighbor’s, reading a book, listening to music, eating a snack, drinking a drink or going to the bathroom and the sweet flight attendant was at work while flying over cold yet beautiful desolation.  For not being able to fly we humans are certainly doing allot of things while flying.  Airplanes and snow lands (hands up)? I enjoyed my view and vowed to get back up when we were flying over the Bering Sea.  Ice caps and clear blue water flooded my vision.  Amazed and awed by something so meaningless, something so beautiful. 

 

In moments we gained minutes.  We left one place and went to a new place.  I am sad about my departure yet happy about my arrival.  It happened fast.  I want to echo Holden Caulfield’s words when he says, “What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by.  I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them.  I hate that.  I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it.  If you don’t, you feel even worse”  (Pg. 4, The Catcher In The Rye).

 

With a jetlagged tear in my eye “I want to bid farewell until we meet again” (Dylan) to all my friends in Zhengzhou. Those who were faithful and those who were encouraging…those that were funny and those that were willing…those that were cute and those that were adorable…those that talked allot and those who didn’t talk much at all… those who dominated the world and those that lost everything… those who wrote stories and those who took pictures…those who taught and those who didn’t teach…those who stopped for traffic and those who traffic stopped for…those who drank and those who danced… those who gawked and those who giggled… those who cooked and those who ate… those who had babies and those who wanted babies… A bus driver will miss three boys from America and a child will miss China and all his friends.  I’m sad as hell

 

–The curtain is drawn…-Eric

 

A Dashan Business Trip

7:30am… Three people in the backseat… I didn’t call the hump but I got the hump on our two hour journey to another city.  

 

Teaching

I taught 13 classes in one day.  I was tired. 

 

Lunch break

During lunch I was motioned to get up and go outside for a picture… I took many pictures during our lunch break.   I took pictures with the owner, his family, the waitresses, some guy and his wife who were walking by, some guy from the school.  Come ye come all…for pictures with a foreigner.  Heck, I think I even asked myself for a picture…

 

I officially endorsed the restaurant to the public with a written letter.  That is with Chinese characters not in English… They gave me a piece of paper and said, here copy this…. and then signed it.  They later said that my Chinese writing looked like a 3 year had written those characters (hey I’ve only been here 7 months… so I’ll take 3 years old).   They told me that you had to be a food connoisseur in-order to officially endorse a restaurant in China but they also told me that I qualified for the “exception” of this particular rule (white power).   If you’re ever in the area I do recommend that you stop in and try the Peking duck… I just earned money for that last recommendation…Yes!   

 

Celebrity status

After every class (13) I signed many, many autographs… line after line… they even made me write my name on their hands and arms.   I can safely say that China has prepared me… if I ever want to become a world renowned actor or musician… because of China I now know that I can handle the celebrity attention… I can safely say that I won’t shave my head like Brittany Spears.  

 

One kid in the autograph line asked me, “May I hug you?”  I said yes and hugged him… he smiled went away and the next kid held out his book for me sign.   What the heck…that is something a teenaged girl does to the backstreet boy’s.  

 

On the way home

I didn’t get the hump because we took a bus.  But I noticed that there are graves out on the farms in China .  Cremation is the law…so I thought it was a little weird to see graves. 

 

–People are silly…-Eric