Travels with Dad: Part Two

Early on the 20th we took a taxi out to the airport. Funny story, actually. We got out of the apartment building with all of our stuff and as we exited the complex there was a taxi just magically sitting there. So, I walked up and looked inside and the guy appeared to be sleeping. I tapped on the glass and he was sleeping!! He woke up just long enough for me to ask him to take us to the airport and for him to reply, "Bu yao."

Got to the airport, went through security, and then sat in the waiting area as our plane was mysteriously not ready to leave. We were heading south and apparently the weather was bad. When we arrived in Nanjing a little after noon, there was a woman standing there holding a sign to greet us and take us to the hotel. Sometimes, I just love private schools and their fancy-schmancy airport reception. Unlike Beijing, Nanjing didn't seem to have an airport shuttle and the taxi would have cost about 120 rmb, so I was glad for the free ride. Off to the two-star hotel which was pretty much downtown...another deal we snagged through connections...and then off to explore the city. Found an Indian joint and had the best baingan bhartha of my life. The mango lassi was also delish. And, they had an "observation deck" to watch the cook make the bread in the authentic brick oven. Oh, and the tables...fabulous!! You see, the owner had been running into difficulty explaining to his Chinese customers what spices were in each dish. So, he made these tables with sections and in each section he put a different ingredient. Covered the whole deal with a glass top and made for himself a nice point-n-tell menu. May sound a bit weird, but he pulled it off well and it was even kinda classy.

I feel like I am mimicking the writer's voice of Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City. I apologize...I guess I've been getting a little too much of that show.

We spent a couple of days in Nanjing, mostly just hanging out. We tackled the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum in a day and then were planning to head to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. But, as the private car was coming to pick us up, we got a call from Sir Barry to say that the place was closed for renovations for the next year! Thought about taking a paddle boat ride down the river, but it was a royal rip-off and I refused to play the prodigal tourist. Below SHOULD be (yet it won't load though the computer thinks that it has...maybe in a later post) a photo from the Sun Yat-Sen. This is a before photo--we then headed through the gates you see behind us and up the 364 or something stairs straight to the top. There are various other temples and small museums on the grounds of this huge park and we stopped at a few of them before I declared that I was Sun Yat-Senned Out. I succesfully managed to get directions to a bus headed back downtown and we hopped on it in search of some good Chinese food. We ended up in the food court in the basement of a mall eating sub-par Korean food. But, we had a good chat and rehydrated of the free water that they begrudingly gave us. And, since we had wandered into the mall, we decided to partake in consumerism. Our goal: a sporty bathing suit for me--you know the Speedo lap-swimming kind. What we found were really short-torsoed imitations of Speedos--the Extra-Extra large had a torso length of 165 cm. Someh0w, I just couldn't fit my 179 cm torso into that, much to the disbelief of the saleslady. And I even told her how tall I am. Oh well. So, we failed at that attempt.

Next morning I visited the Oxford English Academy to interview for prospective work. This is the company that was giving us the "luxury" treatment with the car rides, etc. Not too shabby. Met the infamous Sir Barry, CEO of the gig. We had dinner with a group of employees at a nice Chinese restaurant and I had a 2.5 hr conversation with the head teacher there. Very refreshing to talk to someone so gung-ho about his job and life. I was hooked. So next year, maybe Nanjing?

On the morning of the 23rd, the driver took us to the train station where we hopped an express to Suzhou. A mere two-and-a-half hours later, we were standing in front of one of my students and on our way to her family's home...