Last week at the museum - just saying goodbye
Trip Start
Aug 09, 2005
1
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Lintong, China
Thursday, September 29, 2005
I could have got a taxi - it would have been sensible - but after our rather expensive weekend I was feeling cheap, and anyway didn't feel rational enough to haggle a price with a taxi driver. So walked down the long path to the carpark in the rain, wandered around aimlessly until I found a 306 bus and stood outside it feeling, and probably looking, pitiful until a driver turned up and opened the doors. I slouched into a seat by the window and tried to keep nose blowing to a minimum. The bus filled up but luckily not so much that anyone sat beside me. It dropped us off outside Xi'an train station, but in a different place to the one where you get the bus, so I did more wandering round in the rain until I got my bearings and was able to catch the bus back to the hotel.
The bus passed though the centre of town so I had a brainwave and jumped off there to try and find some cold medicine. I went to Watsons - a Hong Kong chain of chemist and toiletry shops and picked up anything recognisably cold related - ending up with Strepsils, Vitamin C and something sort of like Vicks - when all I really wanted was some Lemsip. Still, I felt quite pleased with myself, in a foggy sort of way and hopped (or clambered) onto the bus back home.
I'd intended to help Alice by making up her gift-bags when I got back - it seemed a nice unchallenging task for the afternoon, but all I did was pass out almost as soon as I got through the door - taking just enough time to clamber into bed. I was still dozing when Alice got back and really scared her - first the door was open then there was someone in bed - she said she had to go back out and check the room number before actually coming in. Alice had had a good but tiring day - I think we were both still tired from the trip. Still we dragged ourselves back out into the rain to get a bit of emergency shopping done before her student arrived for his very delayed lesson.
I spent almost an hour trying to get my photos put on disc while Alice tried to get stuff for the kids - almost impossible in our row of shops - she ended up with lots of pencils! We were going to try and get some food but ran out of time and had to run back to meet Neil - Alice's one remaining student. He was as good natured about it as ever and he and Alice sat and chatted about their weekends for a bit while I made bags. Inevitably they ran out of conversation topics after about 20 minutes - it's really hard to find stuff which we're all interested in enough to talk about and which he has enough vocab for. We managed to move the topic round to food and quizzed him about his knowledge of English and American cuisine (if you can call it that) - it's an interesting fact that KFC actually arrived here before McDonalds - I always thought it would be the other way around. I was also surprised to find that they learnt about Marmite - apparently it's in the English language textbook - I'm not sure what it says about it though as he didn't want to try it. Oh well - his loss!
Neil also helped us make all the gift bags (he was better at it than either of us) and then filled them as well. I'd expected him to leave after that and went out to get a takeaway but when I got back he was still there - helping Alice fill the bags. He was also the one who pointed out that we'd bought pencil leads instead of pencils for the boys so I ran out and got some pens ( we were giving them to some 2yr olds so I'm not sure if it was the right thing - but there wasn't much else to get and I suppose it's the thought that counts. As soon as I got back I was sent out to get more biscuits as we hadn't enough of those - by this time the staff were looking at me very strangely - all that running backwards and forwards. Finally, at about 10, we were done. We said thank you and goodbye to Neil and sent him off with some Cadbury's chocolates and my jar of rhubarb and custard sweets - I"m not sure if he knew what they were but seemed to like that they were from England. Then settled down to our lukewarm food - which by that time we were very grateful for!
Soon after we'd finished and were packing up the presents when Neil knocked on the door - he'd brought us each a silk scarf (hankie really) and come back to help us pack up the gift bags. Again help very much needed. Once we finally shooed him out the door and got to bed it was almost midnight.
After all that my actual last day was a bit of an anti-climax. I finally properly met the director of the department - instead of him just talking to Tim while I was there. He'd been in Norway supervising 2 terracotta figures in a travelling exhibition while I'd been a volunteer. He seemed very nice and I think if he'd been around I'd probably have got to do more as there hadn't really been anyone I could ask for stuff apart from Sophia who made a habit of saying that's fine and then ignoring the fact I'd ever asked. I spent the morning going through the guidebook I'd proofread with Sophia (she couldn't read my writing - even the neat stuff) then went to see what Tim was doing - he'd been given actual work to do - checking the director's translation. However as soon as I sat down the director came up and took me off to the computer room to write my reference. Literally - I wrote the thing as he had no idea what I'd done. Which is why it doesn't have anything about the jade exhibition - my main achievement on the project - being the stupid idiot I am (and still suffering from a cold) I completely forgot to add it in.
There'd been another grand opening for an exhibition - this one inside as it was raining so we didn't get to see it - which meant I got stuck in the computer room with the director, making awkward conversation about Norway (I know nothing about Norway) until the tourguides had changed out of their uniforms in the outer room. I'm not sure who's modesty it was supposed to preserve though as he kept checking to see whether they were finished. After that he took me to the restaurant and made me order much to much food - 2 plates of vegetables, a meatball soup and rice. He also insisted I have a spoon to eat it with - which was very thoughtful but didn't do me much good as I've never managed to get on with Chinese spoons - they're ceramic and too bulky!
Tim turned up at some point - managed to get less to eat as well, and soon after the director made his excuses and left - obviously his job was done. So we went shopping for books and souvenirs - I didn't get much (but was ripped off for it anyway) as having seen everything for a month hadn't seen much I liked. Although I still like the idea of a full sized statue for the garden! I didn't really get to say goodbye to the museum properly either as we got coffee and chatted for most of lunch. I suppose in a way it was better - I didn't get all depressed about leaving.
We didn't do much in the afternoon either - Sophia taught Tim to play Chinese Chequers (and beat him at it rather soundly in the process but I suppose that's only to be expected) I read a book on tourism in Xi'an - which Indiana was supposed to have given me when I'd arrived by which I'd got the day before - and we all ate pomegranates and watched as the office emptied. I'd been meaning to hand round chocolates but in the end just gave them to Sophia to distribute - she didn't seem to impressed but said she'd put them in the reception room. Everyone was leaving early and getting tourist buses back so I said a quick goodbye and took some photos of the outside of the museum before climbing on the staff bus for my last ride back to Xi'an.
It was very uneventful - apart from the fact that I was chucked off early and had to find my stop - then missed two buses because I couldn't get through the crowds. Eventually got back, exhausted and found Alice in a similar state - she'd gone in to work in the morning and almost caused a riot handing out gift bags then come back and packed. We sorted through to make sure she hadn't left anything then had a last dinner in the restaurant (well not my last but probably the last where I'll get to choose what I eat) and got a relatively early night. Not the best last day ever but I suppose it's different here anyway.
