It Began With An Ending

Finally, after all the goodbyes, the day came when I actually had to leave Lanshan. Monday, July 3rd, I took the remainder of my things and closed the door to my apartment for the last time and headed for the bus station. It was early and outside the school the street was busy and full of people going about their business. But they all stopped to look as they saw us walk out the gate. I wanted to wave goodbye to them all, even though I didn't know them, but they'd been an ever present part of my everyday life for so long that I felt an attachment. I felt a bit emotional actually. I won't have this kind of life in this kind of place ever again and for all the frustrations that have sometimes brought me down, my enduring memories of Lanshan will be the happiest.

Susan came early to my apartment to have breakfast with us before seeing me off and already then I could see she was on the verge of tears. There's nothing that'll make me cry more than the sight of someone else crying and the whole way through breakfast we both sat trying not to make eye-contact in case we'd lose it. I didn't think she'd be so upset to see me go, and that touched me. At the bus station things got very emotional and she did everything except talk directly to me for fear of showing her emotions in public. Open expressions of sadness, love or anger don't seem to be that common here. They're the kind of things that are reserved for behind closed doors but as the bus was about to leave we finally said goodbye and she barely managed to squeak it out before I gave her a big hug and she burst into tears. It was all I could do to stop myself breaking down too. She's a good woman, and I'll miss her very much. The next day she phoned me while I was in Guangzhou 'just to hear my voice', she said. She told me she hadn't stopped crying that day until 4pm and sounded teary even then. She said she felt as if she'd lost something when I went away. That means a lot.

Once I'd recovered my composure on the bus that Monday, things really began for me. Six weeks of travelling lay before me and I had some big plans. First though Anthony and I had some quality time reserved in Guangzhou. We did all the things a couple of mates might traditionally do in a western city, and which now seem as foreign as they do familiar to me. We went to the cinema, ate good food, drank some beers at a bar, relaxed at a cafe, bought some books, did some shopping and just joked round and had fun. It was a cool way to relax after the major upheaval of leaving Lanshan, and to prepare myself for the way ahead. That way began with a train ride to Xiamen...