The kindness of strangers (Courtney)

As mentioned by Marcus the weather has been hot. It's so hot I don't really think there are words for it. I remember a few years ago on my birthday it got to 45 degrees, and that was the hottest day Melbourne had had in...well, something like a couple of decades! Here, it is that kind of heat every single day. I love summer, but I have my limitations...which was proved to me yesterday.

Yesterday Abby and I decided to meet up in the city to do some shopping. We figured if we met late in the afternoon it might have cooled down a touch and after shopping we could then go for drinks/dinner. All sounded too easy. So at 3pm I left for the bus stop. The bus stop for the centre of the city is a 15 minute walk away - and the majority of that walk is through the school. Marcus insisted that I take an umbrella with me, and in hindsight I am so glad I did as otherwise right about now I would have third degree burns. I got to the bus stop and felt like I was just melting, the heat is so oppressive. So I stood in the shade and downed a bottle of water. Stood and waited some more. Ten minutes passes, no buses. Not a big drama as our bus normally comes every 10 to 15 minutes, so I figure I must have just missed the last one. Another 10 minutes passes, by now I'm started to feel over over hot, like I can no longer regulate my body temperature. I start to realise that I have not seen a bus, let alone the one I want. There are 3 different routes that go along this road, but there had not been a bus in sight. Some people are leaving the bus stop. I start to wonder what is going on when a young Chinese guy comes and asks me something in Chinese. I had to laugh, as I thought, of all the people you could ask at the bus stop, why the heck would you chose me?! When I said I didn't understand, he reverted to English and asked me which bus I was waiting for. I said the 42. He points to a scrap of paper sticky taped to a tree down the road and says - no 42 bus today. Great. I ask, do you know which other bus I can get to go to the city? But he doesn't understand so wanders away. What I don't realise is, that he hasn't just wandered away, he's gone off to try and find someone who speaks better English to help me.

We have days here, where it all seems too hard and difficult, which I'm sure we would feel in any country. You find on a lot of sites or blogs, people rarely talk about the difficulties faced here, I think a lot of people want to give of this vibe of how travel savvy they are and how nothing could phase them blah blah. But Marcus and I want to be honest in our descriptions and experiences and here, things are different. On top of just generally not fitting in and being unaware of ingrained customs, we also stick out like sore thumbs. But yesterday really showed me that for the most part, the Chinese are just curious about us, and want to know more about us - mostly, what the heck are we doing living in this district?! I often feel intimidated (never scared) by a lot of people on the street, with the pointing and staring and the loud "hellos" and it's a constant thing for me to tell myself that they are just curious because we are so different. Yesterday also showed me that most people are only too willing to help, but are generally to shy to do so because of the language barrier.

So within a minute, a young girl came over with a group of friends. They were heading somewhere too and wanted to know where I needed to be. I explained where I was meeting Abby, and said I just basically need to get to the city and I can go from there. (My problem being that I was going to just jump into a cab and try to wing it, but I had no clue how to explain to the driver where I needed to go!) The girl says, the bus has been changed, but we will help you. She hails a little bike cab (you will remember seeing pictures of these from previous posts) and explains that we want to go to the next bus stop. An argument ensued over price. He wanted 4 kuai, they wanted to pay no more than 2 kuai. I kid you not. Now remember, this little pedi cab is for me, so I say - look I'll just pay, if he wants 4 kuai lets just give him the money. But no, an agreement was not reached, so it was decided we would walk to the next bus stop.

Walk. It's 45 degrees out and the sun is blistering hot. The next bus stop is at the medical centre, which is a 20 minute walk. So off we go. I figure I had better give Abby a call at this point and tell here that I'm having a bit of a hard time getting into the city! So we walk to the next bus stop, by the time we get there I am so hot that I feel as though I am going to be sick. I am standing there praying this does not happen, as I don't think this would be a good impression on my new friends! Still, no buses, and no shade at the bus stop, just our little umbrellas keeping the sun off our shoulders. I can feel my feet and legs just baking in the sun. So one of the guys decides to go and find us a taxi, of course we are in the government district by now, so there aren't a lot of taxis driving around the manicured streets. He runs off down the road, and comes back 10 minutes later in a cab. We all pile in. By now...and I don't really want to admit this via a public blog...I was just feral. I've never been so hot in all my life, I was beet red and dripping with sweat. Thankfully as I look around, I realise that everyone else is the same. So I'm sitting in the back of the cab trying to dry off with a bunch of tissues, it was just madness how hot it was. We start off on our journey, when we pull up in a sidestreet. The young guy gets out, comes back a minute later with icy cold bottles ofwater for everyone - including me! This is what I mean by how helpful and friendly people can be. All of this effort for some foreigner who they had never met before, they were just so lovely.

We had a great chat as we went into the city. The girl was Nancy, and she works for a company near the school, we drive past it sometimes. Her dream is to go and study at Monash university and she seemed very switched on so I told her that if she wants it to keep working towards that goal. She was really lovely. What was funny was the taxi driver. Normally our conversation with the drivers are pretty limited, sometimes we will get one who rambles on and on but we don't understand a word. Well this guy realised that we had effectively a translator with us and proceeded to bombard me with questions. I was the first foreigner he said had ever been in his cab and he was curious as hell to know why I was in Wuxi, what I did, how long I had been here, did I like it, where did I come from, how old was I. The questions came thick and fast. Nancy was saying I was the first foreigner she had ever seen in our district. She says occasionally they have a foreigner come to visit their factory for work etc, but never someone who actually lives in our district...which I can believe as we have no doubt that we are the only two people in the area who look like us! Imagine that the next time you are at the local shops or walking down your street, imagine being the only person in your entire suburb who looks like you. Kind of makes you feel like you are a member of a lost tribe or similar!

We finally got into the city at 4:40....an hour and forty minutes after I had left the house. Nancy and her friend insisted that I would not give them money for the cab and that in China is final. I would have paid not only for the ride into the city but also for wherever they were heading, but they would hear none of it. What was an exhausting experience was also a really positive experience. A group of people who went absolutely out of their way to help me. All they could have done was basically told me the bus wasn't running and pointed me down the street...but instead they generously gave up their time and delayed their own plans to help with mine. I was immensly grateful, and have sent Nancy an email this morning thanking her again - and saying that if she ever finds herself in Melbourne I'll be more than happy to return the favour!

Turns out Abby and I had a fun evening, which ended in numerous cooling cocktails...hey, the weather made us do it ok!