Alex Blackwelder

Busploration: a fresh, exciting way to explore foreign cities where you can’t read maps or signs by getting on random buses and seeing where you end up.

That is what I have been doing the past few days and it has been magnificent. I thoroughly enjoy people watching, so it is perfect. For 1 yuan (15 us cents) I can hop on a bus and be entertained for a good hour by just staring out the window. It is how I have gotten to know parts of Changsha I wouldn’t see just walking around the college.

Today was especially fun. I chose to try line 132 and it went to many places I had never seen. There are many places in Changsha I have heard of but never found in the city, and this gem of a bus line took me to a few ( an amusement park, metro [a grocery store with lots of western food], and moon lake).

Sometimes things happen that don’t feel like just coincidences, like magically choosing the right bus line to take me to many of the places I have been looking for all week in one route.

Urban life is so different than what I am use to, so I think that gives me a double dose of curiosity about this city. This line took me past where I thought the city ended, and the city kept going! I can travel for hours and not see the outskirts of Changsha. I guess that is normal for a city of 6 million.

Wow, I just looked it up and its official. This city has more people than my entire homestate, Tennessee. That puts things in perspective.

Also, in the morning I usually wake up because of the really bad chinese pop music playing in loud speakers for a wakeup call at the university. This morning I woke up to “Country Roads” by John Denver. It was truly amazing. I love China.

Changsha is separated into two parts by Xiang River. Today I spent some time and explored the banks. I find myself observing more than photographing lately. Here I am, in a foreign world, and all I want to do is watch and soak it all in. I’m searching for a project, perhaps Xian River might be a good focus. There was an interesting mishmash of people there today.

I’ve officially arrived in Changsha after a very strange train ride. There were many communication problems, but I finally started classes today, 4 days after school apparently began. But the adviser here says it is no big deal, so I’ve just got to reject that American part of my brain that is completely freaking out.

I have spent the last few days just acquainting myself with the area I am in and trying to get all of my school stuff ready. I have to make sure I take enough hours to stay full time at MTSU. My advisers and teachers in the States have really helped me make sense of all this confusion.

Hopefully I will go out and shoot tonight. It has been too long and I think that is part of the anxiety I am feeling. Beijing was fun, like a vacation, but I need to shift gears now. I am here to stay.

It’s great here how the little things feel like such an accomplishment.

My first day in Beijing I conquered the bus system. Second day, subway, and yesterday, I got lost about 30 minutes away from the hostel and successfully made it back asking for directions…. in MANDARIN! How awesome. I can’t believe that people can actually understand what I say in really badly pronounced Chinese.

I’m really glad I decided to stay here for a few days instead of going directly to the city my school is in. It was like a fun practice round. There are mistakes I won’t make in Changsha because I made them in Beijing.

Today I leave for Changsha by 20 hour train ride. I hope I get the window seat.

I can’t wait until my language skills get better so I can actually converse with people when I take their picture. As you can see from my postings, I’ve pretty much been in stealth mode. I am so excited to get started on some projects.

(This is not a picture of “Beijing boy”)

This post is dedicated to an incredibly nice unnamed Beijing schoolboy. I did not have small change for the automatic teller at the subway. Frustrated, I left the line in search of something to buy until a boy, no more than 15, came up behind me and handed me a ticket, smiled, and left. It completely made my day. Beijing boy, I love you and xie-xie.

“There are no guarantees that if you work hard enough, or are talented enough, that you will be successful, be able to support yourself, or importantly, make a meaningful contribution to others. But in the meantime, if you are an artist, the art just comes – whether you like it or not- because you can’t stop it.”
-Jessica Todd Harper

Well, I have successfully made it to Beijing in one piece.

By the way, I did not boost the saturation on this, so whoever told me to get use to gray skies in my pictures, your wrong (at least today, ha).