A Series of - Events..

[originally this post was going to have a bunch of pictures, but the intnet will not let me. 对不起, sorry.]

Today we arrived in 昆明 Kunming, and several ridiculous things happened in a row. I think it's all pretty hilarious:


-Yesterday 9:41am: the gates are opened to unlease the animals (us) to get on the train. After surviving getting through the bottleneck to the train (approximately 1000 people ride this type of train), SURPRISE! we are see that our train survived the Cultural Revolution, but unfortunately air conditioning has still not been installed. :(

-last night around 10pm: I agreed to sleep on the top bunk, thinking it a bonus because the fan (and only source of heat relief) was closest to me. However, I didn't realize that the fan blades were metal. And only the front was covered. Listening to music and moving my feet to the hot beats, I suddenly hear a horrible sound and feel an intense pain on my right foot middle toe. Ouch-- the nail is broken, blood, dirty fan residue, oh dear. Luckily I bought that first aid kit with my mother from Target. No hope of going to the bathroom tonight--the last time I went around 3pm the floor was covered in many, many dirty liquids (it is a squatter of course, right onto the train tracks). Fearing that I might lose my toe but at the same time thinking it's kind of cool, I go to bed.

-8:30 am: we arrive! I can walk! horray. We meet up with our teacher, Tang Laoshi, who plans to travel with us through Yunan province. She just finished her first year of graduate school, so she's pretty young and cool. Luckily we don't have that language pledge now, because it's necessary to speak English around the tricksters who try to get us to purchase their travel plans. We all decide to go to 大理 Dali for the first two days, 丽江 Lijiang for the next two, and then Kunming for the last. This was a surprise to me, but we're with a native who will not buy everything for us, so it will all be OK.

-8:46am: Tang laoshi asks a train station officer where we can find a company to take us to Dali. He pulls out a cell phone and someone soon comes to speak with us. The guy who speaks with us is wearing jeans, T-shirt, and gloshes. Not professional-looking by Western standards at all. He tells us to follow him, assuring us that the bus ticket to Dali is the same price as the train ticket, and we'll even save 4 hours! I'm not sure why exactly we believed him, but we did. Soon we come to a pedestrian underpass that has become flooded with water due to the recent rains. We all have our luggage and I still have a big gash in my big toe, so we're extremely frightened about walking through the black-ish brown water. Luckily bicycle rickshaw owners have heard of this flooded pedestrian underpass and are ready to cart us across. We don't really see any other option, so we sit in the back of the rickshaw and allow the bicyclist to get us to the other side. We still don't really know where we are

-9:00am: now that we've reached the other side of the river of filth, we have to cross a four lane high way. And there is a barrier in between. The bus guy tells us to run quickly across and be careful with luggage-- he'll stand on top of the barrier to help us life it over. What the hell are we doing, seriously.

-9:15 we finally arrive to the bus station, he tells us that the bus will leave in 45 minutes. So we have to get to the nearest hospital ASAP to make sure I won't loose that toe after all. We're told that we can take a taxi--very close very close. after driving for a few minutes, the driver confesses he doesn't know where the place is. He stops to ask a street vendor where it is, when suddenly... THUD. I'm about a foot lower than I used to be--looks like the back right tire fell into a ditch. We step out of the vehicle and take a look... apparently Kunming city doesn't cover its sewage holes. The entire back tire is stuck in the hole. We throw 10 kuai (currency) at the driver and run inside the hospital which is luckily right next door.

-9:17 after paying 1.5 kuai (about 20 cents), the doctor agrees to see me. He sits me down and tell me to put my foot on a wooden stool. The stool has what appears to be dried blood.... He suggests I get a shot to ensure that it won't get infected. In the bottom. I am really afraid, but Tang laoshi says it will be OK. As I'm getting the shot, a little Chinese boy comes to look at me. He can't believe I speak Chinese, and even though the nurses tell him to go away, he keeps on looking. This is the proof that there is no privacy in China.

-10:00 we just make it to board the 4 hour bus to Dali. I was very happy with the sterile shot and bandage they gave me for my foot. It seems like it will all be OK! In fact, the hostel we find is extremely clean - we even have our own bathroom. Phew.


we're about to go out to eat dinner. I'm looking forward to some more ridiculous happeningssssss