Independent Travel Weekend
The weekend of September 25-27th was dubbed “Independent Travel Weekend”. It was meant to be a chance for each one of us to go to a place of our choosing by ourselves so that we could not only do things that maybe other people wouldn’t want to do, but more importantly so that we could gain confidence in our Chinese and meet local friends along the way.
However, this was my shining opportunity to see the Chinese medicine man, so I decided to opt out of the “independent travel” so that I could “independently travel” to see the doctor. As it turns out, my solo excursions to see the doctor on Friday and pick up my meds on Saturday were probably more successful than the trips some of my friends took. Too scared to go alone, 5 of my friends teamed up and went to Suzhou, heads held high and ready for a good weekend. Two days later they came back with their tails between their legs, and when they were finally ready to laugh at their own follies, they told us of their sad tales of trying to get a hotel with out passports, the impossibility of finding a cab, and the memorable episode of one of our deathly-allergic-to-peanut classmates who unknowingly ingested peanuts and, thankfully, started throwing up. Meanwhile, I had a relaxing, peaceful weekend that included tasting some delicious Hefang jie treats, seeing the fountain and light show at Xihu at night, and going to dinner with friends. I don’t know the moral of that story, but I got a good laugh out of it anyway.
However, this was my shining opportunity to see the Chinese medicine man, so I decided to opt out of the “independent travel” so that I could “independently travel” to see the doctor. As it turns out, my solo excursions to see the doctor on Friday and pick up my meds on Saturday were probably more successful than the trips some of my friends took. Too scared to go alone, 5 of my friends teamed up and went to Suzhou, heads held high and ready for a good weekend. Two days later they came back with their tails between their legs, and when they were finally ready to laugh at their own follies, they told us of their sad tales of trying to get a hotel with out passports, the impossibility of finding a cab, and the memorable episode of one of our deathly-allergic-to-peanut classmates who unknowingly ingested peanuts and, thankfully, started throwing up. Meanwhile, I had a relaxing, peaceful weekend that included tasting some delicious Hefang jie treats, seeing the fountain and light show at Xihu at night, and going to dinner with friends. I don’t know the moral of that story, but I got a good laugh out of it anyway.
Your excursion, it turns out, was a most important one and I am sure quite educational. A bit like not knowing what will be served up in the Hogwarts infirmary.
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