A City of Opportunities

Kelby

Early morning or late night? That’s the question we were asking ourselves at 1:30 AM as we had just pulled up to the hotel in Chengdu. The plane was a bit rough in the beginning, well, according to Iona and Mrs. Waterman. Liz and I fell asleep within 15 minutes of the flight, which was a blessing in disguise considering there was lots of turbulence in the beginning of the flight. I woke up to ask Iona what was happening, but she simply replied, “Oh, nothing. Just go back to sleep.” I listened.

When we arrived at the hotel and proceeded into our rooms, Liz, Iona and I were preparing for bed. Iona decided she needed to take a shower before our nice, deep slumber of 5 hours. The shower head fell right of the nozzle within 3 seconds of turning it on. It was one of those nights.

We woke up at around 7:30 AM, had breakfast, met our tour guide outside the hotel, and our day did not just start, but it continued. The guide brought us to multiple sights around Chengdu, including a shopping street, wonderful restaurant, Du Fu’s Cottage, and a park.

The two big events of the day were Du Fu’s cottage and the park. Du Fu - a famous and ancient Chinese poet - resided in Chengdu for the last 11 years of his life. We were able to visit his cottage, read some of the history behind his poetry, and meet some people along the stroll through his home (people here love taking pictures with Westerners).

The park was where things got very interesting. Liz, Iona, and I decided to rent a boat and float around a pond in the park, during which time Mrs. Waterman went for a walk with our guide. The boat ride was interesting. The men who rented the boats spoke no English and kept yelling at us in Chinese on hot to get into the boat. Once we got into the boat, the pond was so full of the other boats that it was essentially “bumper boats” rather than “bumper cars”. While rowing around, Iona dropped one of the oars into the pond... we got it! Lastly, there were lots of little kids driving the boats in the pond. Not rowing, but driving. That’s right. There were 6 year old boys hitting us with small motor boats as we struggled around the pond with our oars. It was quite the experience, and I would not trade it for a single thing.

What happened next was the most interesting part of the day for Liz and I. In the park, there is a path where men and woman - ages 60 or older - will leave flyers for other elderly men and woman regarding dates. No, not dates for them, but for their children. The Sisterhood decided to walk through this part of the park, and Iona saw her name on a flyer. It was not she who the flyer was referencing, but a man sitting next to the flyer thought it was. He began asking her questions in Chinese, most likely questions about her relationship status as that’s what was going on. Iona later told us what the conversation was about. She told the man that she was not interested in being “set up”, but there were two young, mature, well qualified girls standing right beside her. Liz and Kelby. That was who.

Iona did not actually set us up with young Chinese bachelors, but it still makes for a good story of how Liz and I were almost international blind dates. Normally I have some serious insight as to what I learned from my day in China. Today, I have learned two very important things: bumper boats are not a myth, and leave blind dates to your friends, not to Iona and an old man in the park.