Chinese Generosity

Something that became immediately evident when I got to know people here is that the Chinese are some of the most generous people I have met anywhere. My waiban explained this is a result of China's collectivist culture. A Chinese person will always go out of their way to help anyone who is a friend, family member, or someone "within their circle", even at significant inconvenience to themselves. A friend teaching here told me a story about how she casually mentioned to one of her students that she needed to find some tomatoes for dinner. When she came home from class she saw a bag full of twenty tomatoes sitting on her front doorstep with a note apologizing that they were not quite as fresh as usual.

I experienced this type of generosity today. This morning I went up to one of my students to ask if she could help me out by writing down some directions in Chinese. I was hoping to eliminate miscommunication by just handing those to the taxi driver when I head to the airport on Friday. She instead told me that the taxi would too expensive (by Chinese standards) and said she would take me to the bus station on Friday herself. Then she said since the bus doesn't drop you right at the airport she would have her boyfriend who lives near the airport meet me at the bus station to direct me onwards. I was blown away by her offer; she already has seven hours of class on Friday but wanted to get up at 8am to help me out, and was going to enlist the help of her boyfriend who had never met me.

After class, she came up and told me that she had talked to her friend and it turns out there is a direct bus from a different station, so she would take me to that station on Friday instead. I thanked her and told her I would buy her lunch or dinner next week to repay her. But it didn't end there. This was the text conversation we had this evening:

Katherine: I am sorry this is late, but I find out you want to buy ticket in advance on Thursday. I canot go with then.
Me: Thank you for letting me know! That's okay, would you be able to help me by writing down what I need to buy? Thanks again for all the help!
Katherine: Yes of course, it is my pleasure. (Insert random Chinese characters here giving directions.)

...10 minutes later...

Katherine: But I am very worried about you. Would you be free tomorrow night 7pm to go?

I am grateful for her help because getting to Hong Kong with its promise of pizza and peanut butter is too important to me to try and figure this out alone. With my Chinese I would probably end up on a bus going the opposite direction of the airport...

So two more days until I get to do my first real traveling! I can't wait. But first, I finally have my first freshmen classes tomorrow and Thursday. Updates on those to come before I leave for the weekend.