TIC Part I

I remind myself to keep an open mind.  An Australian professor at the Beijing University said that his students would sometimes say:  “TIC” which means this is China.  Ok, so I have been in China for 2 weeks now and yesterday the government displaced us because they needed our hotel for some “state business.”  The business related to elections and governor celebrations.  Instead, we traveled to a small village.  The bus ride was about 3 hours long and there were no shocks on the bus at all.  It was a very bumpy 3 hours.  TIC.  We came upon a bridge under construction after we exited the main road.  While the bus was stuck in traffic, some of us got off to walk the road because it was a market day for the people in this village.  Market days only occur every five days so there were people and cars and venders all over the place.  This was a sight to see because now I was in rural China and these people bring whole new meaning to the term poor.  Everyone just stares at us as we walk by.  Some of it has to do with the fact that we are a whole bunch of white Americans, some of it has to do with my 6’11 foot tall classmate Derek.  The market was a sight to see with live chickens, ducks, fish and pigs.  After the bus required all the oncoming traffic to back up a couple feet to maneuver this small village’s bridge, we were back on our adventure deeper into the countryside.  We arrived upon these people’s village where we were going to spend the night because the hotel was occupied.  To my surprise, this ‘village’ had a gate and entrance fee.  It was like an amusement park for tourists to come and see how rural people lived.  TIC.

Off to class…more to come later and just want to keep you hanging!