A long walk

This morning, I set out to go to Starbucks. I brought my backpack with a book, the Sudoku pad that Jimmy and Rachel gave me (I’m slowly picking it up), my camera, and a pad of paper. However, once I hit the intersection, I took a left instead of a right, merely on a whim. It would be an hour and a half before I’d make it to Starbucks for that iced coffee.

Well an hour and a half and one blister from my new sandals.

Anyway, I had decided just to wander. Maybe I’d find a new restaurant to eat at. I had been walking for about twenty minutes and came to an intersection where I thought I could take a right and circle the block. Luckily, I continued straight. Later, I would come out of that intersection on my way back to the hotel and taking a right was NOT the right way home.

I walked a bit more and saw a young man sitting on the sidewalk.

“Hello, friend!”
You get used to this over here, “Hello!”
“Have a seat,” he said, pointing next to him.
I quickly assessed the situation. He didn’t look to be selling something, and he wasn’t a beggar. Perhaps he was just a person wanting to talk. At this point, I really wanted to talk to someone. I hadn’t had a conversation in days. So, I shrugged and sat next to him.
“Where are you from?”

And so it began. I told him I was from America and was a tourist. He said he was looking for a job. I asked if work was hard to find, and he said it was for him. Later, he expressed his confidence that he’d find a job—he spoke English after all. We talked about the district we were in which was a more Western area. Lots of expatriates. We talked weather: he thought it was perfect, I thought it was darned hot (and getting hotter). I told him of my travels abroad, and he asked whether I liked Hong Kong or Beijing better. At one point we even talked about English accents. He said he liked the American English better than British English. Easier to understand. I agreed, but told him I was American, so of course I’d say that. He asked how his pronunciation was and I told him it wasn’t bad (and indeed it wasn’t). He said he was in high school (I swear he looked older) and had taught himself English. I commended him for his efforts.

So we sat there, going back and forth for a while. Talking about history and how Beijing had so much. About life, work, America, and on and on. There were times when we just sat there, watching the cars go by. I saw a bicycle go by that was hauling a cart loaded with cakes of coal. Coal is used quite a bit here. It must have looked a bit strange, a young Western man sitting next to a young Chinese man.

Wanting to get on my way, but not wanting to stop the moment, I continued to wait. Eventually, he said that it was time to go look for work.

“It was a pleasure meeting you,” he said, although I never caught his name.
“And you ,friend. Take care, and good luck finding a job.”
“Thank you. Bye.”
“Zaijian.” And I continued on my way.

I wandered and eventually got to a park that flanked a canal. It was a fairly typical canal in Asia: low water, stagnant, and full of trash. I took a few photos that I’ll post later. The bandwidth here at the hotel is low. I wandered the park a bit. I made to circle around, but found I wasn’t going the right way. So I cut through a forested area where a man was practicing some sort of martial arts. It followed a fenced area that looked to be an International School. Eventually I came around the other side, wandered up the street, and found myself at the exact place that I almost went right.

So I walked back and finally made it to Starbucks. The heat had grown. I figured at this point, I’d earned that iced coffee.