Tuesday, July 12, 2016

In Transition

At the airport I felt like I was about to make the worst decision of my life. I suddenly had the overwhelming feeling of being pulled away from everything I knew and had grown accustomed to. It had become my new normal and I was stepping in to a new life where I didn't know a thing. The entire trip was not only physically draining but also emotionally. The on flight films didn't help with trying to hold it together either. After hours of breaking down in to tears over the loss of a relationship, of the fear of moving to another new city and most of all the realization that I was moving even further away from family, whom I had been craving more of lately, I finally arrived at the airport.

Signs are in English as well, phew!

I had to check in at the airport hotel because I arrived so late and the company employing me couldn't pick me up at that hour. The hotel looked nice enough, till I realized my room had no window.

Don't panic! I somehow manage to sleep, most probably because of exhaustion. The next morning, a rep from the university is there early to get me and transport me to another hotel where I will stay until I can find a more permanent solution. No window! Again. Is this a Chinese thing, because of the number of people, have they turned broom closets in to rooms?

I ask if I could get a room with a window and I get looks as if I've asked for a crown and staph. I can deal with a room with no window, I shouldn't be spending a lot of time in my room anyway. I'm in Shanghai. I should be exploring. It's fine, I could deal with it. This was just the beginning of the oddities of China.

Within a few days of arriving, me and a few other teachers, manage to find apartments. I end up in an apartment with three colleagues who over the course of the year become witnesses to my highs and lows. Unbeknownst to them this was the year I was going to make some serious changes in my life. This was going to be the year that I come out a stronger, bolder person, not willing to take sh*t from anyone.

1 comment:

  1. They say that hindsight is the curse--and the gift--of the historian; perhaps nowhere is that more true than when it comes to relationships. For some people, altruism may shine like a lighthouse in their professional and academic lives, yet be sadly lacking from their personal ones. This causes regret, and the lighthouse becomes dark in times of need. We make decisions and chose actions based on a single set or a collection of reasons that rightly, or wrongly seem best suited at the time. Not all of those decisions, in hindsight, are shown to be the correct ones, as any good historian will tell you. When one stands next to bright objects, it's hard to understand the light, merely the intensity. Truth be told, you were the bulb in the lighthouse.

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