In the morning the next goodbye was with Ludo, besides Efan & Leo only the Austrians were left. We Austrians drove together to the Green Lake. I actually wanted to take the subway (challenge, you know!), but to simplify coordination, I t went with their taxi. If all goes well, it’s quite quick for digital natives or optimistic adopters to get a taxi via Alipay or WeChat, both of which are connected to “Didi”, the equivalent of uber.
It was strange to revisit the places Tony, Leo, Efan, and I had visited on my first, pre-official day in Kunming—a good opportunity to let the melancholy run free.
From home, Efan still held her protective hand over us and guided us to the same restaurant we once had visited, even recommending what and especially how to order, but it was fully booked until 4pm. So, we had much simpler food.
Back at Forest University, Kathi, Reini, and I were the next farewell candidates. Michi would be staying in Yunnan for a few days and leaving China even later than Efan and Leo. Even Efan’s parents came to say goodbye. Ultimately, I managed to get through the situation without escalation and without bursting into tears , but it’s hard to know people you’ll never see again, and it’s also hard to have people you care about scattered across the planet instead of having them around you.
To better orient myself at Kunmingnan (=Kunming South) train station, I visited it after saying goodbye and practiced the route between the station and a nearby hotel.
It may be a capsule hotel, but ultimately it simply offers an indoor tent 2.0 experience, where you can control the light color inside and rely on electricity for exiting and for oxygen supply.
I had two long phone calls with one of two ladies who had properly organized everything for the transfer from Fuzhou (China’s mainland) to three of the Matsu Islands and Taiwan, but due to an approaching typhoon, no ferries are running. So, everything had to be rescheduled by two different agencies before being coordinated by a third in Vienna. It starts with the ferries, of course, but as far as Taiwan is concerned, it’s a step back in the paper world because someone must hand out the tickets on the islands—just as an example of all the details involved. I passed the new information on to Jing (mainland) via WeChat and just wanted to mention that today is Sunday and everything happened between 9:00 p.m. and 11:30 p.m.
What is this green thing? Fruits, vegetables? And how it tastes?
you mean the big rounds in the orange paper in my hand?
That’s a new kind of giant grapes. They are very tasty and seedless. Don’t know which ecological or other side effects they have…