Qingdao is building a metro which won't be completed for a year or two. Unfortunately it is really needed now as the buses at rush hour, or even just a normal time, tend to be quite packed. My tutor lessons finish at 6 which is the rushiest of the rush hour.
The bus pulls up. It's packed. Bursting at the seams. My fellow waitees stampede for the doors, nearly crushing the disembarking passengers who are popped out by the pressure within. I let them get on before me. It looks like they won't all fit but I know, from weary experience, that they will. And just as the last squeezes on, surely leaving room for no more, I hop on and push out a few square centimetres. There's always room for more.
Why do I get on last? Because you do not want to be in the middle of a packed bus. It's hot and stuffy and easy to get stuff stolen. As people get on they push people in, so it gets more and more squashed. And it's impossible to squeeze through the wall to get off at your stop. You're stuck until the bodies around you are cleared. I stay right next to the door. Normally stop by stop you're carried forward into the middle of the bus, rather like convection, but I don't give up my spot by the door.
Then I finally can get off and play a quick game of "now do I have the same number of possessions I started that ride with".
So travelling at rush hour is not fun but after hours it can be quite pleasant. I get on, pinpoint the person in a seat most likely to leave soon and stand right by them. They get off, I sit down, all smiles. Yesterday I reached my home stop but decided to stay on the bus to see if it went anywhere interesting. I was on the 125 and we pootled along East Hong Kong road before turning to go up into Zombieland. I hopped off at a bus station, before we hit the River Styx, and caught the next random bus. We went past the football stadium (very grand, but slightly threatening in its emptiness) and then god knows where. I got off again outside a supermarket and finally caught a bus home. It was fascinating seeing flashes of life I don't normally see. A woman in high heels walking by herself on a desolate road. Lots of BBQ tents set up near rubble. Lots of rubble. (Sometimes Qingdao is shiny glass skyscrapers in a sea of rubble and dirt). Smart flats with multicoloured lights.
Quite good fun for 30p:)
Went to a 麻辣烫, malatang restaurant today. I hate 麻, tongue-tingling, I really hate 辣, spicy, and I'm not a big fan of 烫, watery broth. So surprise surprise, I did not like it... I can't believe anybody thinks water with vegetation is a suitable main meal. And it wasn't very cheap either...
So I consoled myself with a big slice of genuine cheesecake.
I went to fetch Becka's wages (long story...) and there was a teacher at her school with a marked cockney accent he has got from films. I am impressed by the effort he has put in to get such an affected accent. He tried to get me to take over from Becka. I refused all the ten times he asked me.
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