Chapter 1 pt. 2 Welcome, My American Adventurer.

So let's see... I was picked up by a Chinese girl I barely new and was making my way to a hotel located somewhere in this foreign city. I felt a little uncomfortable as I realized  I left my Chinese speaking capabilities in a pile of introductory textbooks on my garage floor.  

Cherry and I continued to attempt a tangible conversation, and I managed to ascertain that Joe, my professor, would be meeting me the next morning at the hotel, and I would be meeting her tonight and the next morning for food…as my Chinese was not up to the level to where I could walk down the street and grab a bit to eat by myself. Well at the time I did not think getting food in a city would be hard at all, I would only have to walk inside the nearest restaurant door, point my finger at a picture of the food on the wall that I wanted, and be good to go.

After 30 minutes of driving, we turned into the exit lane, and passed through the tollbooth, onto the street that took us between dozens of tall buildings and inside traffic. The streets are riddled with taxis and bicycles (motorized mostly),  and barely any car owners. It has only been in the past 10 or so years that owning a car started to become a more common trend. This is due to the recent growth of the middle class in Chengdu. As citizens in industrializing countries cannot afford their own car, however, they still need transportation from A to B, cheap transportation is the only option available.  However, as GDP fluctuates and the middle class starts to grow, convenience starts becoming a purchasable good. Which is exactly why we are starting to see less motorized bikes and more cars on the streets. This increase in purchasing power by Chinese citizens is a good sign of economic growth, just as the sheer amount of infrastructure construction is signified by the cranes along the highway Cherry and I were cruising. China, though, in the 1990’s had a taboo against private ownership of a car since it seemed to be too capitalistic and western, a belief that has disappeared as the  people now need cup holders to put their KFC drinks in while driving to see Star Trek at the movie theatre . Now for myself, I love industrialization as well, but not fried chicken (sorry mom).

The hotel we pulled up to belonged to the local government officials, and cherry being a DA, was able to pull strings for me to get a free room in.  The lobby was adored with gold and red ornaments (the artsy side of Communist nationalism), Chinese characters, statues of past war heroes, and 4 bug eyed Chinese women staring at me who probably felt like Dan Akroyd and Bill Murray when they saw the giant marshmallow monster in Ghostbusters.

After checking in, Cherry needed to make a call to her office and “check on things”, so she pulled out a cell phone that honestly looked like a gadget from a James Bond movie.

Most Chinese people (from all demographics), own cell phones since a good number ofwireless companies directly invest into the country, making ordinarily high-tech and expensive models cheap and highly available to the general populous.

I sat that in front of the check in desk, holding onto my luggage, and trying to sport that same goofy smile during awkward silence that existed between the receptionists and I (who are now giggling).  Cherry hangs up her phone and immediately explains to me how she has to return to the office, which made me become just as bug eyed as the receptionists before. I was hungry, un aware of where the hell I was, and most of all, white and unable to speak Chinese. 

“Cherry?” I calmly asked, as I nervously began to count the protein bars in my back pockets “What am I going to do for dinner…and breakfast…or second breakfast?” I eat a lot. My friend of a friend of a friend Cherry, smiled, put her phone back into the bag, and explained to me how I will be ok, and how the people will be very welcoming and helpful to me, and if all else fails, I should just wait it out till my professor arrives the next morning. Unknowingly, I believed her full heartedly, and waved goodbye as she walked across the massive red carpet and out through automatic door which was constructed to look like a Daoist shrine.

This is the part of the story where the American Adventure was a lone for his first time.

---End of Chapter 1---