We boarded the plane, then immediately walked right back off.  An announcement was made in Chinese and everyone reacted as if this was normal.  As for me, I no idea what was happening.  The lead flight attendant said, "There is a technical issue, you need to wait inside the terminal for further announcements."

Alright then.  More time to gather my thoughts in the terminal.

The few weeks leading up to this were a crescendo of madness as they always are at this time of year.  The grand insult was a last minute meeting called at less than two hours before my flight.  The boss said it would be 'brief', yeah right.  My colleague said, "Just skip the meeting, you'll be cutting it too close.  It's not like the boss plans ahead anyway."  In the end it wouldn't have mattered as the flight was delayed.  But, at the time, you don't know that.  

Thankfully the meeting was moved up half an hour earlier so I attended.  True to form, the boss took attendance while continuing to micromanage us in the same way that our kids are treated.  And all this right until the bitter end.  What an asshole.  Not much was said of interest but the hypocrisy of his "shared leadership" speech blew me away.  What he's really after are yes men who will basically do his job.  That's exactly why this is so infuriating.  He builds in layers upon layers of bureaucracy so that we teachers are overwhelmed with clerical minutiae and forced to do adminstrative tasks.  Little time is left for much else in this kind of survival mindset, certainly not for (gasp) teaching or planning winter break trips. 

The flight delay was actually a blessing in disguise.  It provided the much needed downtime for my brain to start clearing the toxicity and tackle the backlog of things that needed attending to.  This insane boss had creted an environment of survival, so all our energy and time was concentrated on meeting these demands and not much else.  But the immediate goal at this point was to strengthen mental filters and continue to block out thoughts of this boss and the job that I had finally decided to quit.  It takes a considerable skillset to detach mentally and emotionally from toxic and abusive people, but it is just that:  a skill.  Anybody can do this.    For some it comes more naturally than others, but it's like exercise at the gym:  eventually you can get better at it.  

The plane did eventually take off and the decompression phase continued.  I was stuck in a middle seat during the beginning of the Chinese New Year rush but we needed to make the most of the situation.  The weather was polluted but clear and no turbulence as the plane soared above the city of lights, thus leaving all the toxic crap behind.  Ordinarily I would have a clear sense that this was truly the beginning of the trip but the decompression was a lot more serious than the past.  So during the flight my brain wrestled with much of the same questions, why a job environment could be so toxic and what had changed.   I was reminded of the 1000+ pages of ChatGPT conversational analysis to try and get to the bottom of all this.  All that did was open up a bottomless pit of further and further questions.  In the end I would slowly come to let all this go.

The light gear setup made for super easy travel.  Compared to lugging a bike, this was a breeze.  On arrival in Guangzhou I just walked out of the airport and directly to the subway.  With the push of a button on my phone, a QR code came up for a new city and I was on the train just like that.  This was a reminder that China certainly is very convenient for transport and payments.  You can do it all on your phone.  It is a marvel when you consider it like an intra-net.  You can easily get around all over China like this, but the phone economy all ends once you cross the border.

On the subway I realized I was winging it for pretty much everything this trip.  A hotel was booked near Party Pier at the last minute, and the subway got as close as possible. I hopped into a taxi for the last 3km and the driver proved to be super annoying.  Without practicing standard Mandarin himself, he proceeded to lecture me that I should study more.  I kept telling him, “I only speak a little bit” but he insisted on full blown conversations to lecture me how bad America was.  He also thought that Canada and America were the same country.  In all fairness, maybe he heard Trump’s comment about the 51st state.  But I wasn’t in the mood for any of this and I told the driver, “Stop the car now, I’m getting out.  You just piss me off with all this talk.  I told you I only speak a little Chinese and am not in the mood to learn more.  So you either shut up and drive this car or I get off here.”  He seemed surprised to hear this and did what I instructed, and then it was a case of get out and check in.

 The hotel was very nice, a quiet oasis in some compound that you wouldn’t know was a hotel.  After napping a bit and doing some stock trading, I then set out to party.  It was around 11pm or so.  The reception said, “What’s wrong?  You want to leave the compound?”  I then said, “Yes I’m here to party.”  This was entirely a remnant of the covid days when the compound like this certainly would have been locked down and you have to ask for permission to come in or out.  To this day, some PTSD remnants aren’t going away.

Another taxi got close to Party Pier but for some reason took me to a hidden back entrance.  No matter then, the venue was easily found.  After a few more stock trades, I then shut down the account and started drinking.  The music was pulsating and the vibes were amazing, just the way I liked.  After finally having some decent food instead of a million pieces of chicken breast, I got dancing to the music and started to let loose.  It was at that point that I realized this toxic boss and everyone else at the company wouldn’t come here and do this in a million years.  This was world’s away from the pain and it was my world.

At the very end of the night, it was a classic case of trying to find a taxi back drunk.  The first few didn't want to use the meter, and the security guard i.e. the classic 'bao an' noticed.  He tried to argue with the taxi drivers but it was no use.  Sensing an opportunity, another taxi driver emerged and said, "I'll get you home for 30 rmb  (around $4)" Not being one to nickel and dime over something like this, I agreed.  He walked me to his car which 'just happened' to be parked and hidden away from view of the security guards.  True to form, he got me right to the door of the compound.  The hotel girls at the front desk were all smiles.