March 1st: Trip to Wuhan

I rolled out of bed at five-something this morning. All of us new teachers were packed into a van at six a.m., and we set out for Wuhan, the provincial capital. The trip took nearly four hours. We had to do medical examinations for our legal paperwork here. Once we got there, we were processed quickly and didn’t have any problems—it only took about an hour and a half to do everything we had to do. Then we adjourned to the nearby KFC for lunch. Ordering in KFC might sound easy, but the overhead menu is of course written mostly in Chinese symbols. The easiest thing is to order a combo, and then all you have to say is the number. However, Frank got them to give us a picture menu, so we could point out what we wanted. It still took some time to order—it seems the Chinese have long discussions over things that we Americans would consider to be one-word answers (Do you want juice or coke?). I taught Frank a couple of new words in English that he didn’t know (good thing I had a dictionary in my bag)—“sauce” and “salt.” The sauce revelation did allow me to procur some ketchup and two varieties of some sort of sweet and sour sauce (not barbecue, but pretty good), but I think he thought the salt reference was just a vocabulary lesson for him, as I never got any. The food at KFC here is a bit different from in the states—much of it looks the same, but it is spiced differently. Most of the chicken is quite hot. Luckily, they have a wonderful orange-juice concoction.

We then packed back into the van to whine for another nearly four hours about whether we were nearly there yet. It was 3:30 when we got home. Frank came up to my apartment about five and got the IP address for my computer, so HOPEFULLY I will have the internet soon! I think I’m going through internet withdrawal.

I spent a quiet evening; I cleaned a while. I was tired so I stayed in and fixed some pasta with red sauce (not great quality, but edible) and watched a dvd (Hey, BW, can you guess which one?), then went to bed fairly early.

The picture is of a man plowing with a water buffalo in a field alongside the interstate.