Dongying Time Part 2

Sorry it has been so long since I updated! Things have finally been calming down for me. Happy new year! Enjoy Bob's last couple of days in China!

On Sunday (5/5), I took Boba to the electronic mall. He is a technophile, so I figured he would have lots of eyegasms checking out the merchandise. We meet up with Remus and Kim; she is one of Remus’ students. The three of us had gone out together a few times before this outing. 

Before we met up I sort of had a weird vibe, like I should have cancelled or something, but I thought nothing of it. When we arrive, Kim stepped in front of me and placed her hand on Boba’s shoulder. She proceeded to tell him that he was very handsome. -_- It definitely irritated me and rubbed me the wrong way. Since I’m abroad, my second thought was is this culturally acceptable? Usually my feelings aren't off, but you never know. I had no idea at the time (I know now that it isn’t. I told Dean what happened, and he was shocked and angry that she did that). 

Sometimes I get the feeling that some people here are shocked that I have a boyfriend and are even more shocked to discover that he's a different race than me. First off, no one expects me to have a love life. Remus says the first question he usually gets is does he have a girlfriend. The next question is does he like Chinese girls which is super awkward for him because he's not an Asian woman fetishizing douche. Foreign women in China don't usually get asked these questions. I don't think it has anything to do with my attractiveness; I think it's mostly based on me being Black and female. There is a lot of issues with anti-blackness and colorism in China (as well as other countries in East Asia). Lighter skin (specifically white skin) is perceived to be better than darker skin; these ideas existed before Western colonialism. Some women here use umbrellas in the summertime because they don’t want to get darker. Also, for some reason here the male foreigners are constantly asked about dating but the females are never asked. Nicky met her husband (Pan Chao) in Dongying and they were recently married and people (foreigners and locals) are very shocked to hear that she has a husband let alone a Chinese one.

I personally wouldn’t ever do what she did; Brit and I have told each other that we think the other’s boyfriend is super cute, but I wouldn’t tell her boyfriend that. If I made a remark, it would be about how they looked great together (they are so freakin cute!). But like I said before, something just made me uncomfortable. Boba handled it like a boss which one of the many things I love about him. We’re both super nice people, and we don’t think everyone wants us. But we both can sense when someone is flirting or stepping out of line, and we politely disengage. He politely said thank you, stepped back to stand beside me, and took my hand. Needless to say, I was ready for the outing to be over. We hung out for about an hour looking around. Then we took the bus back to the college campus. On the bus, Kim ran into a friend. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her gesture towards Boba and say something in Mandarin to her friend. 

When we arrived on campus, I could sense that she still wanted to hang out. I said I wanted to take a nap. She reluctantly said goodbye, and we headed to Remus’ apartment. We hung out there until dinner time. 

Last Day in Beijing and Dongying Time!

My last few weeks have been super crazy, busy, and tiring! There were a few downs, but I quickly picked myself up with the help of my friends and family. Special shout out to my wifey! I don't have much time left, so I refuse to be stressed or upset. I'll talk about the factors later, but everything's great now (except for my super case of boredom haha). I just had a wonderful birthday a few days ago!

I’m going to break up the rest of Boba’s visit into two posts. Some interesting things happened in Dongying that would be waaaayyyyy too long to put in one post. We packed in a lot during his time here. 

Our last day in Beijing was very chill. We checked out early and utilized the luggage room at Sanlitun (a cool perk!). We had a late bus back to Dongying, so we decided to walk around the mall area. We had dessert at the Godiva cafe! It was SO yummy!

We went to Uniqlo where I bought Boba a Metal Gear Rising shirt for a late birthday present. We had the pleasure of witnessing a Chinese man trying on pants in front of everyone. The men’s changing room was about a two second walk to his left. The security guard yelled at him in Chinese. Boba and I tried to contain our giggles. 

We had three awesome days in Beijing, now it was time for five days in Dongying. We arrived at the bus station about an hour early for our bus; I was not excited for the ride. I had just been on a bus a few days before, and I wasn’t feeling being on one again. We got back to Dongying around 11:30 pm. It took us awhile to get a taxi back because a lot the drivers were trying to cheat us. I really don’t like when they crowd around you boxing you in and refusing to me out of your way even though you are clearly ignoring them. I tend to go for the drivers that aren’t in my face. We finally get back to my school and promptly pass out. I had to wake up early to work the next day. Here begins Boba’s five days in Dongying!!!

I had to work seven days in a row to make up for our break. Holidays don’t really exist in China for teachers. Most schools make you make up the days you were off. What results is usually us working seven days in a row -_- This eats my soul and is usually atrocious. The kids get so cray when their schedule is broken. I love my babies, but it is a test of my strength, I tell you!

There isn’t much to do in my city (I’ll talk about this more in another post). Regardless, it was nice to have Boba see the area. As much as I wanted to see him, I didn't want him to visit last semester because I felt that there wasn't anything to see him. I didn't want him to waste time or money to come to Dongying, and I didn't know if I would have time to take him anywhere. Silly me, I forgot that he just wants to see me and didn't care about the other stuff lol 

I took him to the restaurants that I frequent. Taking him to Pizza Hut was super fun because it’s a super ritzy big deal here. He said that it reminded him of the scene from Demolition Man where they go to eat at Taco Bell! He had me rolling with that one! I could picture the scene in my head.

I did receive some frustrating news from my boss. He offered to have the school’s driver take Boba back to the airport. I was super excited because catching a taxi from the bus station to the airport is not fun. You literally have to stand on the side of the highway and fight against everyone that just got off the bus with you to get a taxi. Let’s not even add being at the airport four hours before your flight into this equation. My boss texts me to tell me that the school can’t do it. Of course he does this at the last minute, but it’s all good because this is typical behavior. I was already prepared and had back-up plans. I know I haven’t gone into much detail about my working situation on here, but it has been a hot mess. I usually have to expect the worst with my school and that's exactly what I get with a side of tom foolery. The best thing is I'm always prepared ^_^

Also, Boba got to meet Britni! I was so happy because she is my boo from another mother. We have SO much in common. We have that positively hated our previous job-are both Black-are both Geminis-in LDRs with awesome boyfriends-came to China-now we here connection. We have always understood the other and had each other's back. I definitely think we would have been friends in America. She later told me that Eileen asked what he looked like. Brit told her that I did good haha

The next post will be the last one for this break. Looking back I did a heck of a lot!

Beijing Trip: Day 3

On my third day in Beijing, Boba and I went to the Summer Palace!!!! We were both super excited; we were also supposed to visit Tian'amen Square and the Forbidden City, but it was SO hot and we both had seen enough! We just wanted to relax after the Summer Palace. 

Boba and I woke up around 10 am to eat before we left. I didn't know if there were any decent food options around the Summer Palace, so I wanted to make sure we wouldn't get hungry. The last thing you want to deal with is intense hunger, crazy heat, and expensive prices.

We walked to the DongSiShiTiao station and transferred to Line 4 at XiZhiMen. Then we got off at BeiGongMen which wasn't too far from the Summer Palace. The Beijing subway system is super easy to navigate and very affordable at 2 kuai per ride. 

We did have some interesting moments on the way. These two older Chinese women stared at me like I was an alien and to make matters worse they did it the whole ride. After a few stops a white gentleman got on the train. They didn't even look at him. Some Chinese people think that white people are normal and everyone else is not. The excuse I often hear is that the majority of foreigners that come to China are White. I also think it has to do with China's discrimination against non-white teachers. A lot of schools here only want White teachers to work at their school. This tends to be a bigger problem at training schools, but it's still a rampant issue in China. Here's a post from a tumblr run by a 22 year old Black man living in Taiwan about this issue. I do know that Taiwan is a separate country (although the Chinese government will swear up and down it isn't and teaches its people this), but they both tend to treat foreigners the same. 

I just ignored them, but there would have been a problem had phones or cameras popped out. I have only had a few annoying picture incidents during my time here. There comes a point during your time in China that you have to not become annoyed or irritated by the staring. One thing that wasn't hard for me to overcome was having people talk about you while you're near them. Heck, rude people do this back in America, but in a language that I can understand. As long as the person isn't pointing and/or laowaiing the hell out of me, we're fine (laowai is kind of a rude term for foreigner. Some non-native born Chinese embrace it, and some dislike it. I'll talk about this in a later post). 

Most Chinese people on the train weren't staring. I think when Chinese people live in Beijing, they see a lot of foreigners, so it becomes normal to them. So, I figured they were tourists from their behavior. I could also tell by their attire. Most people in Beijing dress very stylishly regardless of their age. Turns out my observation was correct, they got off at the same stop as us.

Next, we followed the crowd of people to the Summer Palace. It wasn't too far down the street. There were some ladies selling bottles of water. I decided to ask how much they were, and to my surprise they were really cheap and the bottles were big. I bought one for us since we had forgot to bring water. Boba and I were starting to feel the heat. I figured prices would go way up once we got inside. We came to an opening and then we saw it!

Beijing Day 2: Picking Up Boba

I'm surprised I was able to fall asleep so easily considering the fact that I would be picking Boba up the next day. I think all the dancing tuckered me out. I woke up around 8:30 am, but went back to sleep. I got out of bed around 10 am and went downstairs to check on Boba's flight's progress. The hostel had computers that you could use; I recall 1 kuai would get you fifteen minutes. I saw that his flight was getting in around 1:30 pm. The girls and I were supposed to meet up again, but I figured they hadn't woken up yet. I got a map to the airport shuttle from the hostel (the hostel is right by the DongSiShiTiao and DongZhiMen subway stations which you can use to get anywhere). I had to walk to DongZhiMen station to talk the airport shuttle. I decided to leave early even though it looked like it wasn't far on the map. I decided to leave around 12 to give myself enough time to get there.

After an hour or two, I received a text from Brit around telling me they had gotten dressed and would knock on my door in a few minutes. I went with them to the first desk for their check out and putting their bags away. Apparently most hostels have a room for you to put your stuff. So even if you come early or check out you can put you stuff in a locked room.

We left the hostel together; the ladies were going to get a massage  I was going to walk with them until I noticed that it was about to be 12. I am SO happy that I left early. The walk didn't even a lot of turns. You leave the Sanlitun hostel and make a right on the main road. Then when you hit a street (I forgot which one, but it was one the map) and you make a left and walk down it until you hit the airport shuttle. The problem is that it's a loooooonnnnggg walk. I stopped a few times to ask people if I was going the right way.

*Side note- I recommend coming prepared with some survival Mandarin, even in Beijing. I figured I would have to use it, but I tried to speak English slowly as a test and the person looked at me crazy. I only used Mandarin when I was there.*

I reached the station, bought my ticket, and head down the escalator; the shuttle comes every ten minutes and costs 25 kuai. (Also I noticed that people in Dongying say kuai, while folks in Beijing say yuan). It took about thirty minutes for me to arrive at Terminal 3 (the International terminal). I arrived around a little before 1 pm and got in position. The airport wasn't crowded which was nice because I got to stand right against the railing instead of behind people.

Boba and I already had a plan in case we couldn't find each other. I remembered there was a green bank directly to your left when you leave the airport. I told him what I would have on and even made a sign that read his first name, his last name, and then it said aka Boba haha I showed him the sign before, so that he would know what it looked like. I decided to stand in front of the bank as well just to be on the same side. As I was waiting a few annoying people would come and stand near me and stare at me. I just ignored them and listened to my Ipod. I refused to let anyone even slightly frustrate or annoy me. 

One lady standing beside is holding up a sign that has the same flight number on it as Boba's. I figured I would keep an eye on her in case her clients arrived before he did; I would know that he would be out shortly after. I waited and waited and the anticipation kept building. I finally saw the lady pick up her passengers, so I knew he would be coming out soon. Every time a person would come out I would be break my neck to see if it was him (I am super short, and I was a good distance away). I kept standing on my tippy toes to see him. And then I finally saw him!!! I was SO SO SO excited, and he looked super handsome as always. I held up my sign super high (it probably wasn’t that high lol My short butt). I was to his right, but he kept looking to his left. He later told me he was looking for his extraction point!!! He was right in front of me. I was like, “Boba! Boba!” Then he looked at me and I saw his whole face light up. It made my heart smile! We ran to each other, and he gave me a huge hug. 

We made our way down to the taxi queue. We got a little lost, but a nice guy took us to where it was. We only needed to go down one more escalator instead of heading outside. I updated him on my last few days before he arrived and my crazy night. He had a good laugh about the club situation. He told me that’s why he never wanted to take me out dancing. I gave up going out dancing after my first year of college. I didn’t go often, maybe once or twice a semester, but always enjoyed having mini parties with my friends more. We arrived back at the hostel and saw the cutest dog ever! The hostel owned him, and he was the cutest thing ever. Joe played with him a little bit. Here’s a picture of him:

He had a little ball that he would fetch for you. Simply adorable! In my next post, I'll talk about our trip to the Summer Palace!

Getting a Visitor!

I am very excited for May 1st; Boba shall be coming to visit me in China until May 9th!!! I can't wait to share my life here with him. He gets to hear so many stories, and it will be nice to have him get to experience a little bit of my everyday.

I may have a break for a few days when he arrives. We may spend a day or two in Beijing before returning to Dongying. I haven't had the opportunity to explore Beijing despite traveling there twice. Remus, Joe, and I may also go up to Dalian to visit Ashley!

I also plan to relax with him, too. I really miss seeing him in person (obviously haha), and I can't wait to be able to hold his hand. As much as I would love to run around with him everywhere; I also recognize that it's important to do nothing with him as well. Taking the time to just pretend that the floor is made of lava stay in bed all day sounds amazing. It's going to be nice to have a little bit of home here with me in China.