Complete Chaos.

The last 2 weeks can only be described as crazy chaos. Almost exactly 2 weeks ago from right now I arrived back in Guangzhou from my impromptu trip back home to America. I flew from Chicago to Seoul to Guangzhou. On the last leg of the flight, there was this really creepy dude who was bothering me. He asked me where I was from after a short greeting and I replied "America." I then asked him where he was from and he said a country somewhere in Central Africa- I can't remember where exactly. But from the moment I mentioned I was American, his entire demeanor changed. In the course of me saying one joke about being the only non-Asian people on the plane, he took that as the sign that he should try to invite himself into my life. He mentioned how he was doing business in China. I was kind of blowing him off and said "Cool." He then tried several times to find out where I worked and if he could come and visit me. At that point, the creeper signal in my brain was blaring! I only responded with the minimal amount of sounds to blow him off without the situation escalating. During this time, the plane was basically empty and he was sitting in the wrong seat trying to sit next to me on the 3.5-hour flight. As I got more and more uncomfortable, I pulled out my phone and started texting Andrew. My phone didn't have service, but he didn't know that. It got to the point where I was contemplating saying I have a boyfriend- which is completely untrue- and using Andrew as the proxy. Of course, like all truly good responses, it came after the fact. THANKFULLY, some guys came up to the seat where he was trying to sit. It was their seats that were next to me and so the creeper was away from me for the flight! YAY!

Photo by Baloncici/iStock / Getty Images

This story only begins the start of an extremely rough week. I spent the weekend getting my stuff organized and taken care of at my apartment which was extremely needed. I showed up on Monday morning at school and tried to figure out what exactly my students had been taught the week that I was in the US. In only one of my classes, they students had covered what I had planned. So I spent Monday and Tuesday trying to figure out what my students had actually learned and what to do next for them. I spent a lot of hours at school. I also had staff meetings after school both days as well. 

Wednesday was more of the same. I was really trying hard to get papers graded and figure out who didn't turn in their homework. On Monday and Tuesday, I was really on top of things and brought healthy snacks to school to munch on. I ran out of things on Wednesday so I decided to go to Walmart and get some food so I could eat healthier. In the apple section, I set my phone down (my pants didn't have pockets) on the apples as I turned to rip off one of the plastic baggies for my apples. My iPhone was stolen in the apple section. I couldn't find my phone and tried to talk to one of the employees to find out what to do, but she couldn't understand English. Thankfully, a nice lady who knew English heard me trying to communicate with the employee and translated what was going on. We searched briefly for the phone, but it was gone. I went over to the customer service area to figure out what to do next. My entire life was on that phone. All of my contacts in China. How to get around from place to place. I couldn't communicate with anyone what was going on. I couldn't translate with the people I was trying to talk to into Chinese. All of my work information was on my phone. EVERYTHING. I was asked if I wanted to contact the police and I said yes. They showed up and tried to talk to me in Chinese and I had no ability to convey any of the information. Another nice lady who knew English translated for me to the police and they told me to follow them to make a report. So I followed. 

“There is nothing as scary as not being understood. As I’m writing this I’m sitting in a police station in Guangzhou, China. Somehow in the fruit section of Walmart, my phone was stolen. I currently have no idea how to contact anyone. I don’t have the internet or anyone’s phone numbers to contact them.
Waiting here is scary. No one speaks any English and I speak no Chinese. It’s loud and confusing. However, there was a policeman wearing a neon yellow vest with kind eyes who gave me a bottle of water. He is genuinely trying to help me and it shows. They had someone on the phone talk to me in English. From that, they know I am an American and kinda what happened. Now I’m waiting for an hour before they can do anything.
It’s almost 9 pm. I woke up at 5:30 am. I also taught school all day. I haven’t really eaten in 9 hours or so, except for a handful of M&Ms. I’m so tired. I have no idea how to even get home.”

From this, I realized that I didn't have my passport with me. The only official identification I had with me was my American Drivers' License. I realized that since I had my iPad, I could track my iPhone on it. It was useless. I showed it to them, but they couldn't do anything with it. I waited over an hour for my translator to show up. I talked to the police officers to file a report and they were so nice. It took a while for everything to straightened out, especially since I didn't have my passport. They asked me if I knew how to get home, and I didn't. They asked me what my address was and I didn't know it. The only thing I knew was the name of my metro stop. They were so kind to me. One of the police officers took me in a similar police vehicle to what I rode in to get to the police station. I was dropped off at one of the exits for my metro stop. I walked home in shock and being so thankful that I still had my keys to get into my apartment. I got in the door at almost 11:30 pm. Way too late for me now as a grownup.

Thursday I had no way to get to school. I messaged my friend Sophia online and was praying that she saw it before she left for school. Thankfully she did. I couldn't do any of my normal things to get to work like ride a bike or take a taxi. I rent my bikes on my phone. I can't get a taxi because I use that on my phone with the addresses preprogrammed in. Hailing a taxi is also useless because I don't know the address of the school or how to tell the driver the address. The metro takes way too long and is super crowded- Chinese crowded. However, I got to school completely exhausted because I didn't have enough sleep and was totally jetlagged. I will say that my teaching abilities were diminished due to this. It was a super long day. I was counting down the hours until I was able to go get a new phone after school with Sophia, but not the cost. We first went to look at GoPros for our upcoming trip to the Philippines. I found one that was a good price and had some sick accessories, but they only accepted cash- which I didn't have on me. Eventually, we made our way to the real Apple store in Guangzhou, which was in the most awesome mall.  I messed with the phones at the store and then tried to figure out which one I wanted to get. Once I had decided, I tried to figure out where to go to find somewhere to buy it. I looked around and I saw a white dude who was an employee. I figured that he knew what to do and English- both vital. I walked up to him and said that I want this phone and he sent me to the person to buy it from- without having to stand in the super long line. So I went up to the guy to pay for my new iPhone 8. Super expensive, but something worth the expense due to my absolute reliance upon it. After this, it was super late and we needed to head back to the apartments, so we didn't try to get my cell phone activated. Once we got back, the guys in the apartment across the hall- Andrew, Benjamin, and Paul- were finally getting a working doorknob, so they were all outside their apartment. I had been talking earlier that day about buying an iPhone 8 and so they all knew about it. I told them that I had it, but I hadn't opened it. So they all came over to my apartment and watched the unboxing of the beloved iPhone 8. haha. Once I powered it on, we realized that I couldn't set up my phone because I didn't have a SIM card for it. GAH! We all ended up hanging out for a while and it was a total blast. 

Friday, I woke up sick. I also needed to get to school and was once again completely reliant upon Sophia to get there. We got to school on time, yet still later than I normally would. I taught all day while feeling slightly miserable from the cold or whatever it was that had been brewing in my system since my flight from the US. But otherwise, just a normal day. After school, we went to go get my new SIM card for my phone. It turns out that they had entered my name WRONG when I first got my Chinese number. Because of this, I couldn't get my phone working. AGAIN. I got back home early and went to bed by like 10 pm to fight off my sickness.

Saturday we had school. Apparently in China when you are supposed to have a holiday, you have to make up all the days you get off of school. So you have school on Saturday. My students were just as excited I was to be at school on a Saturday. Due to this lack of a willpower to do many productive things, we did fun things! Teaching kindergarteners has its benefits. I was going to go to get my SIM card for my phone, but I didn't get off work in time for me to get it taken care of. Of course. 

Sunday. The day of rest? Well, I woke up later than planned (as normal) and had to pack to go to the Philippines for the week. It took about an hour of packing, repacking, and realizing what I had forgotten at school. I was going to stop at the school and pick up the things I had forgotten there, but I didn't have time. Instead, I did the responsible thing and went to meet up with June. June was going to help me get a SIM card for my phone before we flew to the Philippines! Thankfully, we got it all taken care of. We then rushed to the train station to meet up with Andrew and catch our train to Macao. We made the train by the skin of our teeth. Everything is always more complicated than you plan. We crossed the border and caught a free bus to the largest casino in the world. 

I could keep writing this blog, but I'll save it all for another post. I meant to post this a week ago, but I got too busy to finish and post it! So keep posted for the next one!