Was going to write about my exploration yesterday out the back way from my apartment complex. Am not far from an exciting part of town. Except for the smog being so thick I couldn't see the sky, the day was perfect weather wise. Like Baby Bear says, "Not too hot, not too cold, it was just right." This was the first day the humidity didn't sap my energy as I walked outside. Anyway, yesterday's experiences of the Chinese restaurant and what I saw absolutely pales compared to today's new experience.
I woke up to a thunderstorm and thought, "this is the first day of school and I'm going to have to walk in this" and immediately wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. No one wants to go out in the weather during a thunderstorm, let alone take a 25-minute walk in one. Besides, I've already been caught in quite a few of these thunderstorms and ended up soaked each time. Those thought didn't stop me from getting up and getting ready for work, for that is what responsible teachers do on the student's first day of school. The least we can do is show up, regardless of the weather. Was thrilled to be able to take a hot shower. I did mention I now have hot water, right? Ah the joys of a spoiled life.
Right prior to leaving I checked e-mails, wanting to see if there were any messages from school. I've already learned that they send out stuff Sunday night expecting that you have checked mail prior to getting to work. Nope, nothing new had been sent since last night. And so I left my apartment and headed to the front door of the building a few steps away to be greeted by a wall of water flowing from the sky to the ground. Decided to take a taxi and asked someone nearby to call for one. She did, and then replied that there were none available. None! No taxis. So much for the idea of a $2 taxi ride to keep me from getting drenched as it just wasn’t going to happen.
Came back into the apartment and got my heavy LL Bean coat guaranteed to keep you warm to 20 degrees below zero; thick coat with a hood. Decided better to sweat than to be soaked. I was preparing to walk in the worst thunderstorm I'd seen here yet. Always have my umbrella on me. Left the building and stepped into 6" of water. It covered my Dansko shoes and touched the bottom of my slacks. It was 8" by the time I got off the complex grounds. The water was 10" by the time I cleared the walking path by the strip mall. I passed three taxi's that refused to take on a new passenger as they had pulled their vehicles off of the road and up on higher grounds. Cars failed to stop as I crossed the streams; normally called streets, as they were too afraid the water that was high enough to reach their doors would cause them to stall. Who cares if you splash the pedestrian? Better than a stalled car. There were no low water crossing signs to guide us, just roads becoming streams wanting to become rivers.
The water was 12" deep by the time I reached the halfway point to school. I'd been walking 12 minutes. You've got to excuse me, I'm a math teacher and all I could think of was what a great word problem this could be, how fast is the rain falling per minute? I kept looking at my watch as I felt wading through the water was slowing me down horribly and I needed to be at school on time. Don't want to be late on the first day of school!
As cars drove by, they caused the water in the streets to push towards the sidewalks. It looked like I was wading knee dip in the ocean and watching the waves come in and then recede keeping the height of the water in constant flux from mid -calf to knee high. By now the water had nowhere to run, the drains built into each street failed to make a difference. In fact, the sewage that moves below the paved streets was coming up and commingling with the water. The good part of this was that the cold, cold water was warming up where the sewage joined it, yet the sulfur smell was a bit much and the water was so dirty I couldn't see my feet. So you say, who cares about seeing one's feet? Well, if you can't see your feet, you can't see where the curbs are. You don't know where the bumps in the sidewalks are. You don't know what you are stepping on. So glad I've walked these streets, as when I'd get close to where I thought a curb might be, I'd test each step prior to putting my weight down. Of course, when you found the curb, changing from the sidewalk to the street added to the water height on your pants as streets were lower than the sidewalks which were already 12" deep with an ebb and flow from the cars.
Finally I get to Hongqiao Rd, the road where my school is, one of the busiest roads in this area. Hongqiao Rd is pronounced houng-chow lou in Chinese, (Lu being their word for road) and am grateful that I only have one more block to wade through. Let me give you some background info about Hongqiao Rd. There are the six lanes, three going each direction. Now the two most middle lanes in each direction are separated by the third lane going in the same direction by an 18" high and almost 2' wide median filled with plants. So we have one lane for bicycles, motor-scooters, electric bikes, that is the lane closest to the curb, then the median, then four lanes for cars and buses, then another median, and the last lane for non-cars going the other direction. I step into Hongqiao Rd and it adds another 8" to my wet pants in height. The shock of it almost made me lose my balance. The road, which usually takes nearly five minutes to clear enough traffic to be safe to cross, was virtually empty. Amazing. My thoughts literally said that all of those other people usually on that road where just a whole lot smarter than I was as they probably stayed home. I was ten minutes late to work. Dry except my legs/feet that were submerged. (My coat had not dried out by the time I left school at 4:30. The Head of Schools instructed three buses to take all of the teachers home, so none of us had to walk. Taxis were still not running.
Found out when it rains there is a demand on taxis and it is best to leave by 6 am if you plan on finding one.) Arrived to find out that school was canceled! We didn't get the news in a timely manner, and neither did most students. As the 85 buses came to drop off kiddos, each one was sent back with students old enough to be home alone, but the elementary students were teacher air-lifted out of the buses and passed from one teacher to another until the child could be put on dry ground before entering the cafeteria. It was great to see the line of male teachers from the bus to the cafeteria passing kids from one teacher to another, the kids high in the air, with their feet dangling, until the ground was high enough that the child could be put down and not get their feet wet. Did I mention that our school is on higher ground than the street and that the water literally covered our first two steps to get into any building? Most of those male teachers doing the airlift were either wearing crocks (unbelievably popular here) or were barefoot and all had rolled up trousers.
In our new school, we now know where all of the leaks are! The top or fifth floors got to see where the leaking roofs were, while the basements got the benefit of receiving water that had no where else to go. The stairways leading to the basement had become exotic concrete waterfalls. If the landing hadn't been the basement, I'd say it was a gorgeous waterfall. In the basement are all of the teacher's supplies, the copy center with the Xerox machines, the books waiting to be assigned to students, and the brand new Mac computers waiting to be issued to students and teachers. They had given me mine early with the agreement I turn it back in last Thursday to be upgraded with additional software and returned today. All was flooded. The gyms are on the top floor of each building didn't fare well either. But we got great pictures for the yearbook!
By 10:30 I was in my classroom with time to plan more future lessons and to get my e-mail. We have to clock in at work by 7:30 a.m. and e-mail had been sent out at 7:36 a.m. that school had been canceled! The memo announcing the cancellation started with "due to the typhoon today"... so that is what this was! I learn something new every day. Am still clueless as to what the difference is between one treacherous thunderstorm and a typhoon. Anyway, tomorrow is a do-over day and we will have our first day of school again.
Just imagine, all this occurred while you were all tucked snugly in your warm beds! China has been anything but dull. Wow, here I thought I'd get to experience my first day of school and instead I got to experience my first typhoon!
