Week #1 of John's Visit: December 16th-21st Shenzhen, China (My Home)

Sunday, December 16^th, 2012 = John’s interesting arrival in Shenzhen

With the poor internet connection that I have here in China it proved difficult to plan a trip with someone living on the other side of the world – things were bound to be miscommunicated so why not start with our first miscommunication: John’s arrival.. oops!

I was sure that John was supposed to message me to let me know if he was going to be able to make the ferry or have to take the bus across the border into China. John was sure that he was taking the ferry. The result of this: I spent an hour drinking martinis with Patrick and Krista in Patrick’s room while fretting about where John was, if he’d made it and if he was going to turn up bald because someone adored his white hair. After about an hour and a half I received a call from a strange number, the voice on the other end was John, laughing nervously, asking “where are you?” I downed my drink and flew into action. I was lucky to get a cab right away and between the cabbies broken English and my non-existent Mandarin he understand that my boyfriend had just arrived from Canada and was at the Ferry terminal (Shekou Mato), he also understood that I was excited/nervous and in a hurry! He got me there in 8 minutes. I jumped out of the taxi and ran into the building to find no one. I ran back outside. I then realized all I had to do was stop and scan the area; sure enough the only white head in the place was John’s (with all of his hair)! hahaha After a little reunion and explanation of our miscommunication we headed back to my place where we dropped his stuff and went over to Patrick’s room where a group of friends were waiting patiently to meet him  : ) After some introductions and a few laughs John had quickly faded so we said our good nights and headed to bed.

It was such a strange and exciting feeling to have John actually here, in China. I was so looking forward to showing him around where I am living so that now when we chat it’ll be a little easier for him to care and understand (because he’ll actually know who I’m speaking about, where I’m speaking about and what things look like). J For instance, now he understands why we love going to Muslim Noodle where they make the noodles right in front of you, so fresh! He was a fan as well haha

John spent the week getting acquainted with the rather drastic time change, my students and my surroundings here in China and did quite well – I think siestas in the mid-afternoon saved him. The students were beyond thrilled to have him! They called him Skippy John Jones and were always very concerned when he wasn’t in the classroom! Haha John found a good balance between spending time getting to know my crazy grade 2ers and exploring Shenzhen (a 5 kilometer radius around the school)! Haha He put on his big boy pants and set off in the world of Chinese stares (which of course he didn’t even notice), markets and my beloved park. Em and I were able to give poor directions so that he could see some of the places that we frequent and from what I gathered he really liked the area that we live in J I am so glad that he went off to look around during the days while I was working – I wanted to show him everything but of course, although we kept him very busy with some of our favourite restaurants, bars and parts of the city we didn’t have enough time. There is never enough time, is there? Em and I did get surprise smoothies from our favourite smoothie man on the corner a few times and he did show up one day with the most beautiful bouquet of lilies...it was so nice to have my boy friend in the same place ... even if it was only for a week!