This morning, Yu Cui messaged me on We Chat (China’s only
legal social media app) saying that she thought it would be safer if I had a
cell phone with me while I travel. The cell phone that was included in my fee
to the recruiter only covered the days I was actually working at the
internship. It had been shut off yesterday. She offered to put me on her cell
phone plan for the next two weeks so I could make phone calls to her, John, or
Vivi if I needed to. She texted me to say we’d meet at 11:30 to get it all set
up.
I met her at 11:30 in the lobby with my stuff. “Have you
tried hot pot?” she asked me. Hot pot is a very traditional Chinese dish. The
Sichuan hot pot is the most famous and very spicy, but all regions of china
have some variation of the dish.
“I have not,” I told her.
“Do you want to?” she asked.
“Sure,” I said.
“Okay,” she said. “What time is your flight?”
“7:00” I told her. “So I need to leave at 3:00 to get
there.”
She looked at her watch. “Okay we have time.” We went
outside and waved her arm over her head. A white taxi came screeching over to
the curb. “Get in.” she said.
That driver wouldn’t take us to where we needed to go, so we
changed taxis a few minutes later. The experience of riding in a Chinese taxi
is pretty much everything you’d imagine it to be. Having walked in front of
these guys for the past 7 weeks, I knew what to expect but I’m sure if you were
new to China, it would be traumatizing.
Yu Cui called ahead and made a reservation for us at the Hot
Pot restaurant. The idea is that you get a pot with a particular soup base
brought to your table. You then order different meats and vegetables to put in
the soup. There is then a bar to sample different sauces—or more traditionally,
make your own—that you can dip the meat and veggies in after they are cooked in the pot.
I got a tomato soup base for my pot. Yu Cui ordered beef and
lamb, as well as something that translated to pork balls. We couldn’t decide on
which veggies so she ordered a sampler that had lettuce, bot-choy, various mushrooms, and arugula on it. We also
got wantons and “bing.”
For sauces, I got four different types. One was a fermented red bean sauce
that I mixed dried peanuts into. Another was some sort of spicy soy sauce.
Another was a spicy black bean sauce. The final was a sesame based sauce. There
was also a famous house sauce that this restaurant made, and we each were
brought a dish of that.
The entire meal was amazing! Yu Cui kept insisting I eat
more food—and not knowing what would happen to my diet when I got to Hong Kong,
I did. It was all so flavorful and tasty. Definitively one of the best meals I
have had in China.
“You know,” I told her, “I will really miss the flavor of
Chinese food. Some of it has admittedly been scary.” She laughed. “But I’ve
liked most of it, and we don’t have anything like it back home.”
“Do you like the chicken feet?” she asked.
“No,” I said. “I won’t eat the chicken feet.”
“You should try it,” she said.
“I like the chicken wing,” I said.
“Chicken wing is boring,” she said.
We had a great lunch, a fun time chatting, and so much good
food. She gave me her old cell phone that was set up with minutes and 3G data
that I could use within the mainland. In Hong Kong and Macau, it wouldn’t do
anything, but when I go to Beijing and Xi’an I can use it if I’m in a bind.
When lunch was over, I got on the subway closest to the
restaurant and took it to the airport.
I haven’t really written a post about the end of my
internship. I’ve tried to a couple times but it never seems right. I thought a
lot about what I wanted to say during the subway ride to the airport. Words
just don’t seem appropriate. I had an incredible time working at AllSet. John
was such a great boss and taught me so many useful skills I will definitely be
able to use in the future. Vivi, Yang Renjun, and Yu Cui were such good friends
to me. They taught me a ton about China, helped me make the most of each trip I
took, and took really good care of me in making sure I ate enough and knew how
to get around…not to mention the Chinese lessons were awesome and I learned so
much more than I expected to.
Maybe I dozed off or something but all of a sudden, we were
at the airport. The subway ride that seemed interminable last week flew by this
time. In fact, I was now there too early. I walked around a bit before going in
a book store and buying a book on Chinese History that looked interesting. I
then proceeded to read the entire thing before check-in for my flight even
started.
It turned out I had to go through both customs and security
to go to Hong Kong. Reading about the relationship between these countries is
interesting. It’s like they are separate, but China wants Hong Kong, but not
completely, and Hong Kong wants a little bit of China, but not completely (In
the end I now have a Hong Kong visa in my passport so I am counting it as
country #16.)
I got to my gate and spent some time journaling. My flight
was delayed so I bought some tea. When it was time to board, we were all herded
on a bus that took us out to the plane on the runway. On the bus ride I talked
to a Ukranian girl who was being deported to Hong Kong because of an expired
visa. I couldn’t completely understand her broken English (it sounded like she
said “some one got stabbed on the subway”) but it seemed like she was having a
very bad day.
My flight to Hong Kong was on Spring Airlines. Spring
Airlines is a low budget carrier out of China. When you fly on a low budget
carried, you expect less leg room. The problem with this is, Chinese airlines
don’t have a lot of leg room to begin with. My knees were pressed so tightly
against the seat in front of me, I had to bend them so my feet didn’t even
touch the ground.
The flight however was very fun. We flew along the coast of
China and there a thunderstorm going on over the main land. Watching the
lightning from the plane was incredible, although I learned that Chinese people
do not like turbulence at all. About 15
minutes before we landed the flight attendants turned up the cabin lights and
led us in a little Tai Chi stretching. It was hilarious to watch, but it
actually felt really good as they demonstrated how to re-set the “Chi” (life
energy) in your tissues.
When we landed, we disembarked and were ushered into
customs. The screening was very easy, and they handed me my visa (which was not
attached to my passport apparently) and departure card. I cleared customs and
rounded the corner to venture out into Hong Kong.
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