Foreign Black Girls on the Move

It’s Sunday evening, and tomorrow is the first day of the new semester. After vacationing for the past few weeks, I think I'm ready to step in the ring & get round 2 of my Chinese teaching experience started. For the past week and a half, I have been recovering from my ‘backpacking excursion’ around China while simultaneously attempting to battle Post-Vacation Stress Disorder (PVSD). You know that depressing feeling you get when you return home from a wonderful vacation and now it’s back to reality? Yup, that’s the one.

Since returning home from vacation, I’ve been able to reflect on everything that happened. From Ningbo to Guangzhou to Hong Kong to Macau to Shenzhen to Xiamen and back to Ningbo – There were many struggles and triumphs alike, and I'm so glad I got to experience all of them. It would take me weeks to compile a post about everything that happened during my spring festival vacation, so let’s just call this post the “highlight reel.”

Day 1: Destination - Guangzhou

Getting out of Ningbo seemed to be a challenge for my travel partner/fellow FBG and I. First, we wanted to take the train, but it was sold out so we decided to take a plane instead. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 8 am, so we had a very early morning. Yay! When we arrived at the airport, however, we were informed that our flight was delayed for 4 hours. You mean to tell me that I could've gotten 4 extra hours of sleep?! Okay cool. Lucky for us, though, the airline provided a hotel room (+ lunch) for us to stay in while we waited for our flight. Free food and a free bed - I won't complain. When we finally arrived at our destination, we met up with a friend from our teaching program who showed us around Guangzhou. There we enjoyed a nice evening of dinner and drinks.

Day 2-5: Destination - Hong Kong

We left Guangzhou by train the next day and headed towards Hong Kong. This was by far my favorite destination of the entire trip. From "The Peak," which provides an immaculate view of the Hong Kong skyline to the beautiful museums and parks to the chill vibe offered by the bar area Lan Kwai Fong, I was immediately enamored by Hong Kong's tourist attractions. I will definitely be returning to HK before I leave China. The only negative component of our time in Hong Kong was our unfortunate time travel back to the Apartheid-era. While hanging out with a group of people we met in Lan Kwai Fong, 3 policemen came up to me and the two FBG's who were accompanying me and asked us for our identification cards and passports. Meanwhile, there is a group of white kids sitting beside us...but I digress. Hong Kong was poppin!

Day 5-7:  Destination - Macau

A short ferry ride from Hong Kong led us to a small peninsula known as Macau. For me, Macau will forever be known as "The Land of Struggles." Don't get me wrong, I had a lot of fun visiting Macau. The Portuguese-inspired architecture was beautiful, I visited a few Buddhist temples, saw a panoramic view of the entire country from one of the tallest towers in the world, and the Vegas-style casinos provided a show of lights (and fireworks) that was unforgettable. However, getting around Macau proved to be a major headache. On day one in Macau, we got lost multiple times, ended up walking in circles, and at one point rode the bus for 1.5 hours looking for a destination that we could have easily walked to in 20 minutes or less. Day 2 went a lot smoother once we got an official guide book, though. Lesson learned.

Day 7-9: Destination - Shenzhen

Shenzhen was another chance to link up with a fellow black person from my teaching program (y'all know I love my black people), and it definitely did not disappoint. Immediately upon our arrival to Shenzhen by ferry, we were whisked off to a party area to get it poppin with our homie and some of his friends. Although we were a little too tired from a long day of exploring Macau to actually participate in the turn up festivities, it was a nice gesture. The next day, however, our friend showed us a nice time by taking us to a club where he DJs on the weekend -- Hip-Hop music I might add. It was my first time hearing Hip-Hop music in a club since I've arrived to China, so I was definitely in my zone the entire night. We decided to stay in Shenzhen for a few extra nights just to hang out and explore a different area of China. Plus, the weather was absolutely amazing. One thing I can say about Shenzhen is that it is home to the greatest look-at-those-black-people-starers of all time. And I thought I had it bad in Ningbo. Sike.

Day 9-10: Destination - Ningbo

After being away from home for over a week, all the partying and exploring was beginning to catch up to me, and I must admit I was getting pretty irritable. Little did we know, Finding our way back to Ningbo would turn out to be a complete excursion in itself. Desperate to get home, we listened to the advice of some random "business man" we met on the street and decided to take a bus from Shenzhen to Xiamen to then catch a connecting bus to Ningbo. The man informed us that the bus would offer us a place to sleep throughout the night and would include complimentary food and drinks. The offer seemed legit, and we were more than ready to go home so we hesitantly accepted. We get on the bus packed with way too many "beds," reminiscent of that time I was a sardine sealed in a tin box, at around 8:00 pm. After riding on the bus for a few hours, I eventually doze off. Next thing I know, we're stranded in the middle of nowhere at 4 am, and it becomes obvious that we've been HOODWINKED! As you can see in the picture above, we were not happy campers. #Blown. Luckily, we were able to put our heads together and eventually found our way home via train, a much more reliable mode of transportation.

My mini-backpacking adventure about China was definitely a learning experience, but I honestly enjoyed every minute of it - from the beautiful skylines and gardens to wearing the same outfits repeatedly. Being in China for the Chinese New Year was an unforgettable experience.

More pictures from my Chinese vacation:

- FBG