Ok, so perhaps I should talk about how things have been going. Miguel, Ross, and I have been doing different jobs this whole time. Miguel's been working in the factory downstairs. Ross and I are upstairs. Ross has been doing alot of filing, while I'm working in the finance department, inputing data from invoices into computers and labeling documents. Work is pretty lax. I don't get work unless I ask for it, and when I do get work, it's usually pretty boring and brainless.(Don't tell them I said that though).
This is a story about missing the bus. Have you ever missed the bus for school before? What did you do? Skip school? Ask your parents to take you? hopefully the latter.
So, what do you do when you're all the way on the other side of the world from your parents, in the middle of a a city of 16 million people, in the middle of rush hour, and you miss the bus?
Let's start from the beginning. I'm here in Beijing doing an internship at NCR. I've already spent 3 weeks here now and i'm feeling fairly homesick and lonely now that the exchange portion of the trip is over. My host employee's name is Nancy. She takes the company bus to work every day, so, I take it as well. The bus leaves at 7:20 am every morning, and it's a 1 hour ride to NCR because Nancy lives in northwest beijing and NCR is in southwest beijing. That, and it's during rush hour. Oh, and the bus stop is still not close enough to her home to walk, so we actually have to take a taxi to and from the bus stop, which is inconveniently located in between 2 bridges with no distinctive landmarks to tell the drivers(But i'll get to that later). So, that's how I get to and from work every day.
Now, Nancy is a sales director, and she takes these short business trips out to different places in China. So, yesterday, she headed out to Shanghai and Nanjing, leaving me to go to work alone. Her husband took me to the bus stop in the morning, and then in the afternoon, I took a taxi home after the bus ride. A little scary yes, but manageable. So, this morning, I get up and her husband’s not there. I thought that Nancy got back last night, but I went to bed early, so I wasn’t sure. The grandmother is up, and I ask her if I’m supposed to go to the bus stop on my own. She starts asking me if I can, and I’m like, ….ok. So, I head out to take a taxi on my own to this nondescript bus stop.
So, I take off for the bus stop. And, on the way, the taxi driver takes a wrong turn.
when I got there, I called my person and apparently she was already on the bus she tells me to grab another taxi, so I wave one over. I’m gonna try and make it to the next stop before the bus, so I hand the phone to the taxi driver because I don’t know where the next stop is, and we head off. When we’re halfway there, she calls and, well, it's too late. My taxi driver is driving slow. Like, normal for Cary, but, slow for Beijing. So, we try again to make it to the next stop.
By this time, I’m starting to sweat and I’m getting pretty nervous. When we get off the ramp, we get stuck in this really jam packed traffic circle. It’s backed up real bad with cars and bikes. While we're stuck in that, she calls and asks where we are, and obviously we’re not there yet. She says that they'll wait for me, so, I think,” ok, phew. the bus is gonna wait”. Well, we finally get out of that traffic circle, which we took twice because the taxi driver didn't take the turn the first time, and finally reach our destination. Only, no bus.
But, Nancy was there. Apparently I heard her wrong. She was going to wait for me, not the bus. So, instead of me getting out of the taxi, she gets in, and we have to take it all the way to NCR. So, I never made the bus at all.
But, that’s not all. When she gets on, she asks how I was late. Apparently, I wasn't late at first. I was actually early. I left 5 minutes before she did, but I didn't know she was at home. I thought I was the one late because the grandmother was like, "can you go yourself?" and all the other doors were closed. Yeah.. So, this whole thing could have been avoided in the first place if I had just known
Ok, so, when I finally get to here, I find this out. You know the slow taxi driver? He's new. He got his license last month. Any other taxi driver could have made it to the bus stop in time. But, out of all the taxi drivers out there, I just happened to pick him. Man, it’s going to be a long 2 weeks.
My host family treats me pretty well. I live in an apartment in northwest Beijing with her husband, son, and parents. I get treated really well, especially by the grandparents. They do plenty of cooking and are always saying that I am too skinny and need to eat more. Life is definitely simpler compared to the excitement of the exchange trip, but I think it's more revealing about how Chinese live normally.
That's all for now. Sorry for the delayed post. There's apparently construction nearby that knocked our power out without warning. Half of this post was written yesterday. So, forgive the potential jumpiness. Will upload pictures if possible.
Nathaniel
