Roads paved with gold

(On the fairly crowded city bus this afternoon. And is it just me, or is China filled predominately with males?).
(The diligent road pavers).
(Eating at "Happy Harry's" with my students).

It is about 5:30 in the early evening as I write this. The temperature is 92 degrees. The heat index is 109 degrees. I feel like I am back in Kansas, except there's really no escape from the heat.

I finally got in touch with some students. I hopped on the city bus at 11:20 and arrived at new campus 20 minutes later. They are repaving the huge road in front of the school. This is an amazing thing in this city. The road, which was literally littered with boulders and collapsed concrete, is now on its way to becoming a real road. But that means they were pouring asphalt in 110 degree heat. So when I got to cross the street, I had to leap over tons of gooey tar.

This occasion reminded me of a few weeks ago when some students asked me only half-jokingly, "Are the roads really paved with gold in America?" I was thinking, "Wow, isn't that what immigrants to America thought 100 years ago? And some people still think it." I assured them, "No, they aren't paved with gold." But they are usually fairly smooth, and paved with asphalt which can't be said for a lot of roads in China...

Then I also was reminded of how I was thinking many Americans are considered "poor," if they don't have a car. Most "poor" people in America could easily be considered middle class or almost upper class in China. Middle class Americans would be considered extremely rich in China. In China you are rich if you have a car, a 3 bedroom apartment, and an air-conditioner; you are middle-class if you have a refrigerator and a motorized bicycle; you are poor if don't have enough food to eat.

It always puts life in perspective when I sometimes ponder things like that...

Anyway, I found my dear students near the back gate. We wandered and wandered until they decided on a restaurant for lunch--"Happy Harry's." I asked who Harry was, knowing that no Chinese person had that name. They said it was perhaps the man behind the counter who cooked our food. He was bent over in half from age, he didn't have a shirt on, and a little cigarette drooped from his mouth. He didn't seem to fit the description of Happy Harry. He was more like Haggard Hu.

The tables were the most creative I've seen in China. The seats were swings hanging from the ceiling. When I sat down I was pretty sure the ropes would snap. I doubt those swings have had any Americans sit on them. I weigh more than most Chinese girls and boys. And the students were enthralled with the swings. They asked, "isn't this the most romantic restaurant?" I looked around at the buzzing flies, Haggard Hu, and the sweat dripping down everybody's eager faces. "Um, I don't know if 'romantic' is the right word for it..."

I had some fried rice with some limp vegetables strewn on top. Three of the girls only ate "ice-cream" for lunch. They insisted they were too hot for anything else. So they only ate some jelly-looking "ice-cream," with red beans and cherries and other things mixed in.

Anyway, we had a very pleasant lunch. I have missed those students these past couple of weeks. After lunch we walked back across campus in search of air-conditioning. There is no air-conditioning in any of the buildings or dormitories, except for the China Post on campus. So we all piled into the China Post, probably making a nuisance of ourselves, but greatly enjoying the cool air. All my students spoke longingly of their hometowns, which they promised had much pleasanter weather.

We reluctantly left after a while. The students headed back to their dorms to sleep. There wasn't anything else they could do. The total lack of air conditioning and heating is one reason I think productivity is sometimes rather low in this "furnace city." In the extremely hot months (June-October), all people can do is sleep or sit motionlessly or eat a watermelon. In the extremely cold months (December-March), all people can do is wrap up in a million layers of clothes, and again, sleep or sit motionlessly, with eyes glazed over.

Only the sturdy people (which doesn't include me or most of my students), are doing something. For example, from our kitchen window I can see construction workers building another rickety, multiple story apartment building in the searing heat. I can also look down out my window right now and see a dozen firefighters/soldiers, clad only in olive green shorts, running several miles... The only other active people are the pilots who have been flying fighter jets across the city for several days. I don't look at the planes; I look at the people's faces on the ground. Everyone gazes up in wonder and amazement at this sight. I think they are probably also filled with pride--their country is modernizing, and catching up with the West. They probably never anticipated the day that their country would have its own, albeit Russian-made, fighter jets.

The visions of America's roads paved with gold are gradually being replaced by a rapidly modernizing and developing China. And I'm here to witness it all. I'm pretty fortunate. :)