A Night in Chengdu

      This time when we arrive to the hotel it is already paid for when we arrive. We walk into the room. It is bigger than Sim’s Cozy, and it had three beds. John informs me we will have another person who will be sharing the same room. After some small talk and learning about each other a half hour goes by and there is a knock at the door. It is a tall heavy set Caucasian gentleman. This is Bruce; he is also from South Africa. He was definitely…… a unique individual. He was a very loud and foul mouth man. It was nice to have a conversation with people in my own native tongue and not have to speak slowly, clearly, and properly. I fell back into old habits of using slang and my old vernacular. Some more idle chat and time went by and we all shared the same sentiments. It was time to get something to eat and to “get the bloody hell out of here!”

      As Bruce well put it we left out of the room and walked across the street from the hotel to a restaurant and met some more foreigners like us. We then met Mari and her husband Guy. They too were from South Africa. At this point I felt even more like an outsider, and started to wonder “Why was I the only American in the group?” We were all hired by the same company and just recently arrived to Chengdu, except for John. He was the veteran out of us. He had already been working for the company four months prior to our arrival. He was here to clear up some discrepancies with his living arrangements. Soon after we ordered food another woman joins us. Her name is Sarah, and no she was not also from South Africa, she is from the U.K. She has been living in China off and on for about five years. She has an apartment that she rents out to a gay couple that lives here in Chengdu, most of the time she lives in Australia. She has never worked for the same company as us, but she has heard much about it. Unfortunately none of it was good. During her time she has lived and worked in Chengdu she has heard nothing good about the company that has hired us. Apparently the company is notorious for problems with keeping up their side of the contract, mostly when it came down to paying their employees. From what she had told us, they had become so notorious that they even had to change their name. They used to be called Sunny’s English Club.

      After exchanging stories Sarah departs us with a word of caution. “Don’t take no for an answer. If you don’t like something, demand that it gets fixed!” To help brighten the mood John then mentions that we go to “Bar Street.” Of course that’s not the actual name of the street but it should be. This one street was full of different bars and clubs for the night life. Since we had a party of five we had to take two different cabs to Bar Street. Upon our arrival we see that it was rightly named “Bar Street.” We choose a nearby bar and order a round of beer. We all talk about good times back home and dreams we have of the future. After our first round Mari and Guy decide to head back to their room, before leaving Mari plays the motherly role and says that she has her eye on us. Mimicking that she pulls an eye out and gives John, Bruce, and I one respectively then heads on her way. After she is out of sight the three of us give each other a solitary look…… “We’re gonna have a good time!” We don’t have to walk far before finding a night club. Before walking in I can hear and feel the bass flow through my body. I think to myself, “Oh, yeah. This is the one!”