The day you were waiting for the whole week just arrived. It’s 7:30 in the morning of a Saturday and you were woken up by the loud noise from the lawn mower from the school garden just outside your room. You hated to get up and so you again closed your eyes until you fell asleep and finally woke up after an hour. You wanted to continue sleeping but then you remembered that you are meeting your friends today. You’ve been talking for this for days because you wanted to eat grilled seafood after a very busy week of work. You checked your phone to see you friends’ messages and there they were. Your friends are already talking about the place and meeting time. You suggested to meet each other at 11:30 in the morning at a particular place called Deji Plaza just close to the subway exit. You did a little morning reading to condition yourself to finally get out of bed. You didn’t have breakfast because you have nothing to eat. Your refrigerator has some vegetables in it but you were lazy to cook and in fact it’s already past 9 and you are meeting your friends for lunch in a few hours. You then dashed in the bathroom to take a shower, brush your teeth and dressed up. You finally finished preparing at 10:30. You have decided to wear your new pink vest that makes you more attractive and gives you more confidence to wear skinny jeans and fitted shirt.
It didn’t take you long to be at the subway station and immediately took a train to your meeting place. Since you haven’t strolled around the city, the buildings and landmarks are still unfamiliar to you. You called one of your friends to direct you to the restaurant you’re eating. In few minutes you are already there in the building. Your friends are still on their way so you went into the GAP shop and look through the clothes display. They are so costly so you lose interest of looking for more. Not too long, your friends arrived. You went in straight to the mall and find the restaurant you’re eating in. Since you can speak more Chinese than your two friends, you took the initiative to order food for the three of you. The chef then started cooking your orders. You have enjoyed the food and your friends, too while gossiping about what’s going on in your work place and your workmates. The dancing chefs added more delight to the place. Eating roasted chicken, seafood and beef gave you much relief. You then got out of the restaurant full and satisfied.
The three of you thought of having a cup of coffee and talk more about stuff. Your two friends will also discuss a physics lesson. You have ordered Americano and your friend paid it for you. You were offering money for it but she insisted that it was her treat. You spent a couple of hours in the coffee shop sharing thoughts. The three of you couldn’t help yourselves but to compare your fate to your former classmates who now have achieved higher educational attainment and now holding reputable positions back home. But then, China had change your mindsets and so instead of feeling pity to yourselves, you have told your friends that you are still at par from them. It’s true that they might have masters or called doctors in their fields, but you have also rich experiences in life. You have battled many challenges in China, have learned more about life and you have grown and opened your horizon. Your thoughts are not to belittle your successful classmates and invoking that you are much better than them but to remind yourselves that you should not compare your success with other’s because everyone is successful in their own ways. Success depends on your definition of it. Time to part has come so you all together got out of the coffee shop and went on your separate ways.
You went to a shop to buy some of your week’s needs. You have bought laundry soap, 3 pieces of winter clothing and just a little food. You walked down the street towards the subway station to head home. Weekend is always one of the busiest days at the subway stations. The huge crowd make the station hot that you can forget the cold temperature outside. The train going back to your school has just arrived. It’s full, no vacant seat so you just stood up. Luckily in the next stop many commuters got off giving you a chance to avail a seat just next to the train’s door. You are sitting opposite a mother with two little kids, a girl and a boy. The girl is much older than the boy. The little boy looks like a 5 year old. Then the odd thing happened which is maybe the most interesting thing that you have witnessed today. The mother of the two kids suddenly took out a small plastic bag from her handbag, pull the little boy’s pants down, and asked her son to piss in the plastic bag with the crowd not giving any reaction to it. It is a normal thing that people do here in China but you still can’t get used to it despite your 10 years of stay in this country. You just frowned and smiled realizing you are the only one who found it annoying so you closed your eyes waiting for the train to reach your stop. After several stations, you finally arrived. You walk back to your school, open your room and did your laundry thinking of how could a mom let her little boy piss on a moving train in a plastic bag. Maybe this is one of the life experiences you have encountered in China that your “Master” or “Doctor” classmates never had.
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