Upon landing I took the hour and a half shuttle bus ride to the area where my hostel was located. The hostel is on the fifth floor of a shopping mall, but when I stepped off the elevator it was as though I had entered some Chinese version of an old world European village. There were dogs, rabbits, and birds all over the place. Everything was made of stone and kitschy, old world objects were strewn all over the place. Here's a picture of one of the corridors:
After checking in I headed to Hu Bu Xiang which is a famous food street in Wuhan to get some of my old favourites including fried potatoes and an amazing slow cooked pork sandwich. They slow cook the pork until it's falling apart and mince it with cucumber, green pepper, cilantro and leeks and then put it on a homemade Chinese style English muffin. I wish I had a picture so you could truly appreciate it, but I was too impatient to eat it and couldn't waste time with pictures.
I then headed over to my old neighbourhood to get a kumquat juice from Coco and some liang mian (cold noodles). I walked past my old apartment and my old school even though the students had the day off. It was a bit surreal talking a walk which I had taken almost every day for three years. After my walk down memory lane I met my old co-teacher Judy to go to a wedding. Erica, with whom I worked for three years, invited me to come to Wuhan for her wedding and I was more than happy to attend. I could write a whole other post on Chinese weddings. Some things would be familiar to you (father handing daughter over to groom, children throwing flowers, etc.), but they have their own bizarre traditions as well. The whole ceremony is presided over by a game show host type gentleman who cracks jokes and gets the crowd hyped up. You really need to be there to experience it. After the wedding I walked across the number 1 bridge to the Irish pub where I played covers for two years to meet the owner for a cider or two.
The following day was definitely the highlight. Even though it was Sunday the students had to go to school for a sports day. I was sitting in the office talking to the Chinese teachers when two of my students walked in and were absolutely stunned to see me. They ran out of the office to go tell their friends and I met a bunch of them in the hallway. I followed them up to their classroom to say hi to all 40 of them in each of the 5 classes I taught. The reactions ranged from cheering to absolute stunned silence. It was fun to surprise them. I spent the morning talking to them and taking pictures. Even thinking about it now puts a huge smile on my face. Many of them asked if I was coming back to be their teacher and it was hard to tell them I was only there to visit. I'll end this overly long post with some pictures. Many more were taken and I'll get some of Erica's wedding pictures in the future as well. Enjoy!
Listening to: Dustin Kensrue "The Water and the Blood"
