So today I set out to have an adventure all by myself...and an adventure is exactly what I had! (This post is especially for all of you who think I am not spontaneous...you know who you are!) Anyway, I wanted to go to a place called Yu Yuan (Yu Garden)...it's just a place to go shopping and buy Chinese looking stuff. So, I headed out to get on the bus that my coworker Alice said would take me there. She had given me a little map that showed me how to get to the bus stop.
I successfully made it to the bus stop and matched up the Chinese characters written on my piece of paper to ones on the sign. I waited with everyone else for the bus to come. When the bus arrived, I showed my paper to the driver to ask if that bus would take me where I wanted to go. He indicated that it did, so I joyfully got on! I knew that it would take me about 30-45 minutes to get to Yu Yuan, so I put my iPod on and sat back to enjoy the scenery. Just a few stops later, the bus driver told me to get off and walk around the corner and catch another bus (well, I'm guessing that's what he said...there's no way to know for sure!). So I did just as he said and I found another bus stop sign that had the words that matched the ones on my paper, so I waited again for the bus to come. This time I made sure that the words on the bus matched the ones on my paper and the ones on the sign.
So now I was headed to PuXi...pronouced poo shee. (I live in PuDong...PuXi is on the other side of the river...both places are actually Shangai. For those of you who live in Missouri it's kinda like crossing the Mississippi into Illinois and for those of you in Dallas it's kinda like going over to Ft. Worth...you live in one place and you know the other place exists, but it's slightly foreign.)
After 30 minutes I started looking to see if there was anything that looked familiar. (Either I forgot to ask or Alice forgot to tell me...but I wasn't sure where to get off the bus). Nothing was looking familiar, so I stayed on the bus. Finally we got to the last stop and the bus driver made me get off. Haha! I had no idea where I was! So I started walking up and down the streets trying to remember which direction I had come from so that I could at least get back to the bus stop.
I started walking down a big street that looked promising. At this point I was starving so I stopped at McDonald's to eat lunch. Since some of the employees at McDonald's speak a little English, I decided to get out my "map" and see if they could help me figure out where to go. One girl was finally able to help me and she told me to continue walking down the street I was on and get on the subway and go to People's Square. I knew Yu Yuan was somewhat near People's Square, so I journeyed on!
I found the subway station and made it to People's Square pretty easily. But once again, I had no idea which way to go. So I grabbed the first taxi I could find and I showed him my "map" and said "Yu Yuan." He told me he knew the place (in Chinese of course, but thanks to Professor Kung's Chinese classes at DBU I knew what he was saying!) and drove me right to it. I had finally arrived at Yu Yan two and half hours after I began!!
I did my shopping...all 45 minutes of it...and then decided I would try to figure out how to get home. I headed over to a place where I knew a bunch of taxis would be. I was looking for my "map" so that I could show the taxi driver that I wanted to go back to the subway station...but, I couldn't find it....plus there weren't any taxis available! So this guy (who only had a few teeth) with a bike and a cart tapped me on my shoulder and motioned for me to get on his cart. I said no and turned back around to look for a taxi. After a minute or two he tapped me on the shoulder and motioned again for me to get on his cart. I was reluctant, but (in Chinese) I asked him how much it would cost for a ride to the nearest subway station. He gave me a pretty high price so I said no and turned to look for a taxi. Then he lowered his price and I got on his cart!!
I wasn't 100% sure that he could understand my Chinese, so when I got on his cart I said a little prayer that I would get where I was supposed to go! We went down a bunch of side streets and on one of them I heard some Americans say "Look, take a picture." We were kinda stopped because the street was really crowded so I handed them my camera and asked them to take a picture of me. Just then the street cleared up and the guy started riding again. I had to yell to get his attention to stop so I could get my camera back!!
Anyway, lots of people stared at me...what?? nobody's ever seen a whie girl in a cart before?? Haha!! We finally got to a big street and the guy stopped and told me to get off. I didn't see the subway station so I asked him where it was and he just pointed down the road. So, there I was again not having a clue where I was. I walked down the road a for a little bit and finally found the subway station. I got on and made it home without a hitch! I had a lot of fun and defintely enjoyed my first real adventure in China!! I have more pictures on my other website if you want to see (
picasaweb.google.com/fivepinkdaisies)! I hope you all are having as much fun as I am!
