So, as you know, I am planning a trip to Hainan. The only thing that there really is to do there is to sit by the beach or the pool and read and listen to music. I love doing that. I love spending the day with my iPod, reading a good book, jumping in and out of the pool (and occasionally the ocean when I am dragged against my will). Well one of the major components of my great day is actually having a book. Living in a Chinese-speaking country makes finding a book in English quite a challenge. My school has some English books but I did not really want to spend the week reading the best of Mark Twain. So after hours of searching the Internet and asking everyone I know I find the English bookshop. I was all prepared. I had the name of the store and the address written in Chinese and pinyin so I would be able tell the cabbie where to go. I should have known from the way the day started that someone out there did not want me to be able to have English books.
The funny thing was this should have been a great day. It was the last day before the break, so the kids were leaving at 11 am and I only had to teach two classes. Well my great day was anything but. I woke up to go to work and it was raining. Not a huge surprise--the weather had not been great and this is Suzhou I am living in. Get dressed, run down the three flights of steps, I even remember my umbrella, things are going well. Right outside the building there are three granite steps (this is not a country worried about lawsuits). Well I step down just like I do everyday except today I go SPLAT. I did not realize how wet and slippery they were and my feet literally slid out from under me, my bags flying through the air. My butt landed right on the sharp corner of the steps, which hurt quite a bit. I also somehow developed a giant, very attractive bruise all over my right forearm. Ironically this was the day after the school surprised us with a “gift” of accident insurance in honor of the mid-autumn festival. (Side note: We had this special meeting and they told us they were giving us a gift for our great work. We, of course, thought “YAY money . . . or at the very least more mooncakes.” The reaction of all the teachers when we found out that the gift was accident insurance was kinda funny. )
So anyway, I get up, go to my classroom, run across the hall to tell my friend, Mexico, what happened, suck up the throbbing pain and begin to teach. I did discover this was not the day to sit and have the kiddies come read to me one on one. Other than that, I figured the worst was over. I forgot the old wives’ tale that bad things come in threes, although things did perk up at lunch. The kids went home but the school was serving lunch for the teachers and the kids whose parents had not gone yet. Every Friday they have noodles in the cafeteria, which, considering the food sucks and is usually cold, is a big deal. Unfortunately my kids never get it cause they don’t eat till the second feeding and by then they are gone. On this day though we got there at 11, plus most of the people were gone so we got the noodles and they were great. Things were looking up.
After lunch, I went back to my room and rested till noon. I had my Chinese tutor that afternoon so leaving at noon should have given me plenty of time to buy books and still have time to go online at Starbucks before the tutor. Guess again. Going out and grabbing a cab was sooooo not happening. All the kids who were not getting picked up by parents or whose parents did not have cars were also waiting for cabs. After about 20 minutes of waiting in the MIDDLE OF THE STREET I gave up. Normally I would have just taken the bus but I did not really know where I was going so that was not an option. Instead, I just took the bus a few blocks to where I knew there would be more cabs and hopefully fewer people. That plan worked great.
I got a cab. The driver was able to read my chicken scratch writing so I was happy. We get to the place she says I wanted to go JUST AS IT STARTS POURING, I mean sheets of rain. I don't see a bookstore. After telling her she must be wrong, I get out of the car and try to find the place. Looking, looking, looking . . . nothing. Just as I was about to give up I find the address. When I look I see that instead of a bookstore, it’s the “Drunken Clam,” a bar. Ironically, we had been looking for that bar the week before. I know what happened. It’s listed right next to the bookstore on the expat blog where I got the address. It seems I wrote down the wrong address.
So now I am lost and soaking wet. Of course now I don’t have the umbrella. I start wandering around asking random people if they know where the bookstore is. They don’t. I finally find a guy who looks like an expat, not a tourist, and ask him if he knows where it is. He does. He also tells me I am nowhere near it. So I start walking, and walking, and walking. (Although during all this walking I was able to find one of my favorite stores from Shanghai so it wasn’t a total waste of time.) I get to the point where I am about to give up just as Mexico calls me. She is with our tutor and the tutor knows the place. Not the address but the intersection. Guess what? I am there! Guess what? The bookstore is not. I am totally about to freak out when I see a tiny sign. The place is behind the building on the main road. Neither the expat nor the tutor thought to mention that important detail. So I am there, YAY. Not a great selection but I don’t care; at least the books are in English.
I now I have about 45 minutes to get to my tutor. It’s pouring rain. I may have found the bookstore but I still have no idea where I am. This is not an ideal situation to get a cab. In the end, I got to Starbucks just in time to get a latte before meeting the tutor. The best thing that happened that day was that when I got home and started to pack for Hainan I found the swimsuit I thought I left in AZ. A nice surprise. I'd thought I'd be swimming in shorts and a tee shirt all week. At least the day ended well.
