Buses and gangsta Tibetans

I’ve managed to hop onto 4 buses today, all of them wrong. In the morning, I hopped onto the one that Mr. Zhang was on so he told me it was the bus in front of me to go to the west campus. On the way back to east campus, I tried to get on the wrong bus shuttle again. I got on the right one only to be kicked off because it was too full. Are you kidding me? There were 4 people standing, the rest were sitting. Considering the city buses are cram-packed full of people, don’t think 4 people standing was really that big of a deal.

So there I was stranded (sorta) at Caroline’s campus when I decided to befriend the girl that was in front of me when we were kicked off. So after a little bit, she decided that we would need to take the bus cause they weren’t sending another shuttle. Okay, I follow her onto bus #46. And this bus was pretty much empty, so that should have been a red flag. Only people that live out in the country would get onto buses that empty around rush hour. We go a little bit and she decides that we’re on the wrong #46 and that we need to be going the opposite direction. We hop off and hop onto another 46 only to realize the same thing, only this time we’re really out in the middle of nowhere. Okay, the girl talks to the bus driver and then decides to jump off. I was like “Oh fuck!!! Wait!” So about a block later the bus driver decides to let me off. I run back towards where the girl was standing and of course, I couldn’t find her. By this time, the fog had settled permanently and it was night time. We were at a school but I don’t know which one because there were tons of students around and tons of street vendors. So I saw a taxi and took my chances on it. 25 kuai later and I arrived at my campus. I should really learn Chinese so I don’t have to rely on Chinese people who may or may not know what the hell is going on.

On a different note, when I was at the west campus, I saw the sports day meetings that Caroline was talking about. Basically, it’s an all-school event where everyone either participates in some sport or cheers on people participating in a sport. There was tug-of-war, track events, some game like monkey in the middle among others. It was interesting to see. What we did not expect however, was to be paraded around the track by Caroline’s students. First one came and after a while another came and talked with us. Then another and then we saw the section of students that Caroline teaches. Oh man, we were like celebrities, they all whipped out their cell phones to take pictures and some of the students were bold enough to jump out and stand next to us as they got their picture taken with the teacher. We couldn’t do anything but smile and wave and try to walk around the track faster. There is one thing which is hilarious about her students though, they really are gangsta. I didn’t believe her when she said it but it is true. Gangsta Tibetans. How weird is that? The other weird thing is that some thought I was Chinese, others assumed Tibetan. I’ve been told that there is an ethnic minority in China which I resemble, but I didn’t make the connection that it was the Tibetans which I resembled. It was weird walking by her students and having to tell myself, they are not Indian because some of them really look Indian. I even saw a girl with a nose ring and her head covered.