recently the city & county of honolulu added some new busses to their fleet. i would not know this except that they are a different style from the old ones, and they look like the busses in qingdao. something about the shape and the fact that the windows are bigger.
i learned a lot about chinese life in chinese busses.
for the first half of my time in china i had a second job tutoring a boy who lived on the other side of town. it would take me an hour to walk from my apartment to the bus stop, catch a bus, transfer in front of the enormous, intimidating, well-guarded government building by 五四广场, then ride to the western side of qingdao where we would meet.
after our lesson, i would walk back to the bus stop and try to get on the bus before all the school children, their grandparents, and those who had just finished work. because if i didn’t i would be standing all the way back to downtown in rush hour traffic.
never have i been so physically close to so many people, some of which have been either playing a sport that causes profuse sweating or not bathed in days. or eaten lots of raw garlic. these three people will be pressing themselves against you and screaming into their cellphones. there is really no way i can accurately explain the tight togetherness of the bus. it’s so bad that when it stops at the bus stop, it is virtually impossible to get on or off- there are so many people crammed into the door-well that the doors cannot open. forget about even attempting to find a seat; you’ll be lucky to find a pocket of air to breathe and get off without loosing anything. i once almost lost a flip flop in the shuffle. i ended up throwing myself out of the bus with my shoes in my hands. which is not something you do in china.
also they have these fun televisions on the buses that showcase a variety of entertaining and educational programming, including but certainly not limited to: how to make your own snuggie (which you are encouraged to wear to the post office and bank), america’s funniest home videos, recent news, olympic highlights and the chinese version of south park.
all the chinese busses are all simultaneously aiming to break a land speed record. should a pedestrian conveniently not look (and thus not see) the oncoming bus, the driver will have to slam on the breaks (although i heard of many accidents concerning pedestrians who “didn’t see” the bus, or breaks that weren't slammed fast enough) which may or may not send cell phone/ipod/shopping bag wielding passengers and their valuable possessions flying. my roommate once told me that a bus she was riding braked so hard that an elderly passanger banged his head on the window and it started to bleed. the bus is a very dangerous place indeed.
but as i would stand at the bus stop so far away from home, in this unfamiliar part of the city, freezing cold in the twilight it would hit me. i was doing this. i was in china, working two jobs, grocery shopping, going out with friends from around the world and walking home to my lack-luster apartment, making a life for myself in china. i was learning where every bus went, memorizing the stops and what they meant in chinese. i was learning how to read all the road signs and even understand the programming on the televisions in the bus.
i was slowly becoming accustomed to the plucked chickens in shopping bags with their feet sticking out, the ticket lady on the bus yelling out the next stop, the driver encouraging us to all cram in there so that he could fit a few more passengers, make a few more yuan. i had become accustomed to the walk home, past the same road-side food vendors, the strawberry lady, over those same tiled sidewalks, to our large green metal door with no knobs.
on the occasion i could grab a seat, i would sit next there and watch the city slide by and realize that this place had become familiar, had become home. it was so far from where i’d started, and it was just kind of random that i’d even ended up there, although i couldn’t really imagine being anywhere else.
i guess sometimes it’s a little crazy for me to look back and remember that was my home. i laughed there and cried there and survived winter there and met people who will forever change my life. i dived into a profession i never thought i’d be good at and made friends with many, many people from all walks of life and countries i’d never visited, who taught me more than they will ever know.
and the sight of these new busses here in hawaii brings all these thoughts back.
