Where have I been for the last three years; I’m not sure. Wandering around in some rather strange countries, strange cities in some concept of the planet I used to know.
Two years living in Saudi Arabia where in retrospect feels like some form of heaven, to where I find myself now. Jeddah came with it’s own set of problems, but life there was simple to some extent, and easy in others. I had a driver and a maid, a villa and a pool, language I could understand and sunshine. Here has been one hell of a struggle. Daily life knocks breath out of your lungs in a city where air is poison most days. However I try to see the positives in the thick grey cold wet stinking smog. There are few.
Some say I relish a challenge, but Wuhan may be beyond even my limits.
From the day I arrived I wanted to leave; just get back on a flight and get the hell out of here. I didn’t. Even now, eight months later I just want to get back on a flight and get the hell out of here, somedays.
Before I came to work in China I visited as a tourist and had a great time. Lolling from tear one city to tear one city. Then I came to Wuhan; a city in central China devoid of everything I had experienced before. Some days I feel like it has ruined my life.
Famous for Hot Dry Noodles, rude people, duck necks and a handful of Universities. There is a famous tower and a famous river, but its the people of Wuhan that make it stand out;Your ears will inform you of this! And the sheer majesty of the city. It’s fucking huge – length, with and height. Overwhelming to say the very least.
Once I was over the sheer shock(I’m still not) and was brave enough to leave my apartment I began to collect the things I needed for daily life. Pots, pans, a towel, a kitchen knife, all with the use of charades. I bought vegetables and started to slightly settle in, using the word settle very loosely. I could not communicate with anyone and could not buy anything I needed. For the first two weeks I lived on dried strawberries. As a vegan I knew China would be a challenge.
Then I began to make friends and connections with people, but very slowly. The Chinese can be very insular and stay with the Chinese. Westerners fleeted in and out; always leaving – getting out of this place for they are not stupid, like me.
I have stayed due to my desire to explore the country, to see China, to experience the totally weird culture. Some days it’s just so funny and others it’s just so shit. “Wuhancoaster” seems like a fitting name for this massively populated one horse town. But somedays it seems more exotic that England.
Almost everyone is the same, asleep or banging into things. Dragging their feet, diving mopeds down pavements, staring at the mobiles, screaming and shouting.
I have met some amazing people and have the best Chinese friend ever, for which I will always appreciate and love. People I will never forget as long as I’m alive.
I am now pleased to say that I can now buy cans of tomatoes, eat vegan food in several restaurants, source all of the ingredients for the perfect Bloody Mary, find champagne, book train tickets(and actually get on the train)! I can travel in China and eat in China and enjoy many days here. But all of these things that contribute to having some sort of normal life took time, one baby step after another. It has been like learning a new way of living from being a little baby again, even born again. And I could not have done this without some very special friends, one in particular. I have had zero support from my employer, which is a different story all together.
China is a different world, and Wuhan is far from Beijing or Shanghai; western cities by comparison.
PinkyBinks 
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