When you move to a big city the first thing you’re going to do is get lost. You will probably get lost almost every single day for the first couple of weeks. Especially if you’re taking public transportation. And even more so if think you’re too good to use a map like I did. But it’s perfectly okay to get lost. If anything, it’s the best way to scope out the city, and learn your favorite routes and districts. As long as you stay on the safe side of town and you have enough money on you to take a cab home (assuming you’ve memorized your address, otherwise maybe a map would be a good idea.)
In my previous blog post, I talked about an experience I had on the metro in Shanghai. Long story short, I somewhat injured my leg while momentarily losing my cool in a crowded subway station. I was limping slightly and was pretty shaken up by the whole ordeal, but I still felt fairly in control about everything. That was, until I stepped out of the metro station and immediately realized that I had no idea how to get back to my apartment. I couldn’t remember the Chinese name for my university, so I could ask for directions. I didn’t have any data on my phone or access to wifi so I couldn’t pull up a map or google translate. I began walking up and down the streets to see if I could find something that looked familiar. I walked into a shopping mall to see if one of the employees there spoke English. No such luck. Sufficed to say I was starting to panic a little. I walked into a nearby Papa John’s to collect my thoughts and try to find a wifi connection. I was trying to use my limited Chinese-speaking ability to tell the waitress that I didn’t want to order anything but just needed their wifi password. She politely nodded and handed me a menu. Obviously something had been lost in translation, or maybe she just got tired of hearing me stuttering in a language that I clearly couldn’t speak. So I just kind of gave up and ordered a pizza. I spent the next twenty minutes not giving a single thought to how I was getting home. After my second slice, I asked a waitress to come over and successfully mimed her that I wanted the wifi password, a tactic that I hadn’t thought of previously in my anxious state. From there on, getting home was a piece of cake. I got in cab with my newly learned address in Chinese and was home in 5 minutes. I learned a valuable lesson from this experience. It’s easier to keep your problems in perspective when you have pizza.
