Nanjing Liam

I’m cold. The gov. turns off the heat in early April. Our building has concrete walls for insulation. The cold made me think of Nanjing, when we were stuck in a gigantor snow storm that crippled China’s transportation system at the height of Spring Festival travel season. Spring festival travel is like Christmas season travel, but five times worse, as there are five times as many people on the move. Mark and I, therefore, stayed in Nanjing for three extra days. We used a bit of time to visit the Nanjing Massacre Museum. The museum documents war atrocities committed during the occupation of China by Japan. We exited into a courtyard. The courtyard was like a maze and we couldn’t get out. We bumped into a Brit named Liam who said, “Do you know where the exit is? Do you remember how to say exit? I’ve been in China going on a year and I can’t remember how to say exit.” Liam, a portly and rosy cheeked fellow, was flipping through a phrase book. ” We didn’t, but Liam found the word and said “Chukou zai nar” in this really awfully British-tinged Chinese accent, not that I can talk. We found our way out of the museum courtyard. I will always love Liam. Here’s why:

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure.”

“”ow old are you?”

“Twenty eight,” I said.

“Christ, you’re kidding.” He looked shocked. “I thought you were maybe 21.”

We found out Liam, 21, taught in Harbin.

“Can I ask you a person question?”

He asked us how much we made and we told him. He was very pleased that he made a bit more. We thought he was getting ripped off for working somewhere so cold. Like, Siberian cold, which we told him.

We shared a cab. Cabs were absolutely impossible to find in Nanjing, especially with all that snow on the ground.

He went on, “Do you like swords?” except, he said it like “swooords.” Liam collects swords; and here you can get a good sword for about 50 RMB-$7 USD. You can take them back in your luggage, no problem. Liam had been to Guangzhou and a number of other cities in China. Every girl he met in Guangzhou had her purse snatched by a motorcyclist. Liam bought a junk knock off watch for 15 RMB ($2) for the heck of it and it broke the next day. He had never been pick pocketed. Caught someone with a hand in his pocket though, once. And got a knife drawn on him by a cabbie once. We asked where he might like to go if he visited America.
“Arkansas,” he said.

“Really? Why there?”

“I rather like red necks,” he replied. He told us about his friend, Billy, who was an utter red neck and he knew it. Billy was from Arkansas and was an ESL teacher at his university in Harbin. But moving to Hangzhou, where it was warmer. Billy fought with his boss, which you just don’t do in China. “Yeah, he had a father who was terminally ill. And he was happy about it. Awful man, his father. I might go to Hangzhou next. Billy needs a roommate, but I don’t know if I can handle him, all the time.”

He told us about a girl named Emily. She taught at an elementary school. She only lasted two weeks in China. Here is why:

“She was a bit fat, you see.”

“Oh? Why did that matter.”

“Well, I’m fat and I know it. But I’m a guy. If someone says something to me, I can handle it. But, her students would come up to her and pinch her fat. She was mortified. And the parents, other teachers, would ask her how much she weighed. All the time.”

“Yeah, that isn’t easy to get used to.”