Today, Ann and I ran into one of my students at the train station. Rainbow informed us of something known as a "Panda Card," available to non-natives of Sichuan province. Being from the United States and not even from China, Ann and I are permitted to access the Panda Cards. I am not even sure what purpose they serve?
Ann and I took an absurdly-long bus ride to a huge government building, where we had our cards activated by giving away our passport numbers. Bye-bye...Once we held the cards in our hands, we then understood we could enter certain places that normally cost money for free. Turns out we could have actually could have applied for the cards at our hostel and saved ourself the hour trek to the government building. At the time, we just did not trust anyone. I guess we assume the government to always be looking fora way to get money out of clueless waiguo ren. Ann and I say "Nope, not this time," but we still end up forking over the Ca$h Money. We have not figured out a way to cheat the system.
Ann is laying down in the next room. I am still writing outside in my diary. Scratch what I said about a "cool night" in my previous post. I am starting to sweat, even though it is night-time. At times, I catch a breeze or a faint bit of air waft toward me from the fan from the next room.
Thinking about what it will be like in Tibet and if it will be anything like China...will it be as bustling? Will there be people all over the place? Dirty, mangy cities around the world - places like Mumbai, Deli and all the endless streams of people. I think I would get robbed in certain places and should never go there alone. The over-crowded buses, the bike lanes, the subways, the motorcycles, the long lines...I can't imagine a train leaving from one huge city for another huge city once every 20 minutes, but that is what is happening. How can I city like that breathe? Chengdu and Chongqing are huge cities, but are not quite on the scale of some cities I have read about in India. Each train is always full. The commotion goes on, and no one seems to even mind it! Can these cities even support us? You just suck up all the smog and pollution as you go about your day...you get a smoker's high just breathing. You develop breathers' cough. I do not like this. The West does not have this problem, but what if the environment continues to get worse? Chengdu is so polluted and dirty - being on the bus today and moving ever-so-slowly to our destination, I felt ever-so small and insignificant. I had scary thoughts about the world coming to an end.
Now it is finally quiet, and I can finally breathe again. I am no longer on that bus. I still feel the city, though. It's everything I do not want. I stopped exercising. I'd like a more petite frame, but I might want a boyfriend even more. He may be right though; I am the decider. If I want to be with someone, then I would. I was not supposed to be the single girl, but suddenly that has happened. I graduated from college and I flee the country. I undid a lot of what I had had.
I forget that I had been praying to God.
Ann and I took an absurdly-long bus ride to a huge government building, where we had our cards activated by giving away our passport numbers. Bye-bye...Once we held the cards in our hands, we then understood we could enter certain places that normally cost money for free. Turns out we could have actually could have applied for the cards at our hostel and saved ourself the hour trek to the government building. At the time, we just did not trust anyone. I guess we assume the government to always be looking fora way to get money out of clueless waiguo ren. Ann and I say "Nope, not this time," but we still end up forking over the Ca$h Money. We have not figured out a way to cheat the system.
Ann is laying down in the next room. I am still writing outside in my diary. Scratch what I said about a "cool night" in my previous post. I am starting to sweat, even though it is night-time. At times, I catch a breeze or a faint bit of air waft toward me from the fan from the next room.
Thinking about what it will be like in Tibet and if it will be anything like China...will it be as bustling? Will there be people all over the place? Dirty, mangy cities around the world - places like Mumbai, Deli and all the endless streams of people. I think I would get robbed in certain places and should never go there alone. The over-crowded buses, the bike lanes, the subways, the motorcycles, the long lines...I can't imagine a train leaving from one huge city for another huge city once every 20 minutes, but that is what is happening. How can I city like that breathe? Chengdu and Chongqing are huge cities, but are not quite on the scale of some cities I have read about in India. Each train is always full. The commotion goes on, and no one seems to even mind it! Can these cities even support us? You just suck up all the smog and pollution as you go about your day...you get a smoker's high just breathing. You develop breathers' cough. I do not like this. The West does not have this problem, but what if the environment continues to get worse? Chengdu is so polluted and dirty - being on the bus today and moving ever-so-slowly to our destination, I felt ever-so small and insignificant. I had scary thoughts about the world coming to an end.
Now it is finally quiet, and I can finally breathe again. I am no longer on that bus. I still feel the city, though. It's everything I do not want. I stopped exercising. I'd like a more petite frame, but I might want a boyfriend even more. He may be right though; I am the decider. If I want to be with someone, then I would. I was not supposed to be the single girl, but suddenly that has happened. I graduated from college and I flee the country. I undid a lot of what I had had.
I forget that I had been praying to God.
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