Eric's Beijing Diary

Left the village after lunch today. The problem with catching a bus from the village is that there is no regular bus stop, so you have to flag down the first one you can get. I don't like being in that position, because in rural China, there are busses, and there are busses. Maybe I shouldn't say "rural China," because I have seen this phenonenon all over. But it does seem to be more prevalent in the countryside. The phenomenon I speak of is the difference between regular runs where you buy a ticket at the ticket window, and get on the bus, which stops at prescribed places for a predetermined period of time, and the fly-by-night outfits, who recruit passengers, then leave whenever they get enough passengers to fill the bus, and if they can't quite fill the bus, stop along the way, and try to get more, and keep stopping and waiting until they are full. I hate those. I have learned how to avoid them. But when you're in a country village with no bus station, you are out of luck. Took five hours from the village to Lanzhou. Last year, I happened to get lucky and flag down a regular bus. Three hours that time.

Not sure what the future holds for Jessica's summer school. She has not been able to get a job yet, because she went to a teacher's college, but not a regular four-year program. She doesn't have a bachelor's degree. Not sure exactly how it works, because in America, the teachers' colleges (like the one I went to) are all regular accredited colleges or universities. Anyway, without a bachelor's degree, Jessica may have trouble getting a regular teaching job. This is rural western China, so she can certainly get a job in some remote village, but the pay will be only a couple hundred RMB a month. Frustrating position to be in. But there is no question about the fact that she has been a very unique asset to this community.