IHC

There was one other phrase my TEFL instructor back in Beijing shared with us during our first week here. He said that all expats living in China, no matter how long they have been here, will inevitably have a really crappy day from time to time and just get completely fed up with China. He calls them "IHC" days (I'll let you use your imagination). Today was definitely an IHC day. After school on Friday afternoon we decided we didn't feel like cooking dinner and instead decided to try a Korean restaurant down the road. On the way we decided to stop by one of the many street vendors and pick up a quick and ridiculously cheap snack of grilled pork on a stick. Then at the restaurant we go some rice bowls along with a side of some discount sushi. Not sure if it was the street food or the sushi, but today has just been miserable. We figured it must be food poisoning and have vowed off both for a while. It's a shame too, because we both really enjoyed the Korean restaurant and thought we had found a sweet new place. Only in China can you get delicious food that also makes you miserable.

To make things worse, we had already made plans today to go into Shanghai. Chelsea wanted to get some things for her classroom and I really wanted to plan out or route to the airport on Monday - we're going to Hong Kong to get our permanent visas this week and I think it's going to be a close call from the end of school to making our flight. Including lunch, we had about 4 stops we wanted to make. We thought getting out and about might actually make us feel better so we went ahead and bought train tickets to and from Shanghai. Almost immediately after boarding our train we started feeling worse and started crossing stops off the list. By the time the train arrived, we had decided to just get a quick lunch and head home right away. Then on the subway ride to the restaurant I apparently spiked a fever because I started sweating profusely and felt like I was going to pass out. Luckily a really nice Chinese guy who spoke some English could tell I was in misery and offered me his seat. I graciously accepted.

After lunch, we caught a cab back to the train station. Unfortunately we had already bought return tickets for 7:30 that evening but knew we definitely didn't want to stick around that long. It's actually pretty easy to exchange tickets for a different time, but the only time available wasn't much earlier. We decided to eat the 48 RMB (about 9 bucks) and just get a cab back to Kunshan. We knew it was a long ride and would be expensive, but we both felt so awful we didn't care. The cab driver immediately tried to negotiate the price instead of just using the meter, which we knew would be much lower than the set price he was quoting. He obviously wasn't happy about our request to use the meter and proceeded to take the most indirect route back to the highway. He literally just zig-zagged back and forth for a while and at one point even passed the highway he was supposed to get on. When we called him out on it he magically figured out where to go, but not before racking up an extra 100 RMB or so on the meter. We finally made it back home and have just been laying around ever since.

To top it all off, we actually have school tomorrow, Sunday. The Chinese have a very strange practice where they make up all the holidays they take off by working on the weekend. So if they take off Thursday and Friday for a holiday, they have to make it up by working Saturday and Sunday. Luckily we're following a true American school schedule and don't have to do that too often. But tomorrow is our one day or so per semester that we weren't able to work it out in the schedule. Not too bad compared to local Chinese schools that can get very strange looking weeks around holidays, but still very annoying.

It's been a long, not-so-fun one day weekend, but we're just trying to look forward to the upcoming week. It's another Chinese holiday and we'll be spending the week in Hong Kong. Aside from a few days for the visa stuff we should have the whole week to relax and enjoy the sights of a very unique city.

Till next time,

Hunter