A Fortunate Occurrence - Sep 4, 2006 - Nanning, Guangxi, China

It has been awhile since my last update and I will fill in the blanks soon, but first a story:

Today I woke up in Nanning, China. I was to catch a bus to Vietnam, which would cost 110 Chinese Yuan and a taxi to the bus station would cost another 30. I had spent 45 Yuan last night going to see "When a Stranger Calls" (bad slasher movie) because I was bored and it was the only thing showing in English. This totally unnecessary, but minor indulgence left me with only 105 Yuan in cash (ie. not enough to get me where I was going). I figured everything was cool because I had checked with the front desk who told me that it would be no problem to change $20 at 7:30 in the morning before I left for the station. My bus was at 8:30 and it takes about a half hour to get there.

Well, when I woke up and left my room at 7, there was a note taped to the door that informed me that the front desk was wrong and it would be "quite impossible" to change money before the cashier opened at 9. I was sure I was screwed because I was having bad luck using my ATM card with the local Chinese banks -- how was I going to find a Chase Bank in Nanning at 7:30 in the morning? I was pretty steamed by the time I got downstairs to check out and I started to take it out on the poor guy who had told me it would be OK, then had written the note, trying as he had in his own way to alert me as soon as he found out it would be "quite impossible" to change money.

But then, I stopped and collected myself. I have been listening to an audiobook of lessons by the Dalai Lama on compassion lately, and thinking of this, I apologized for being short with the man and told him that I knew it wasn't his fault and that he was doing the best he could, and then I thanked him and left. I was really looking forward to that free hotel breakfast, but now I couldn't sit around eating -- I had to find a bank or miss the bus. I ran around to several of the ATMs in the vicinity (there were a lot), but they were for local banks and either they weren't on or they didn't take my card. The fourth one I saw, across a big street and down the block, was going to have be the one, because now time was seriously an issue.

I ran across the morning rush with all my gear on my back and approached the ATM. There were lots of people milling around, setting up their areas on the sidewalk for selling stuff throughout the day. The ATM was behind this little privacy partition, partially shielded from the street. As I rushed into it, I noticed a 100 Yuan note on the ground. I thought it had fallen out of my pocket -- the last 100 Yuan bill I had left. But no, it was not mine, (yet, at least) and it was just sitting there, ever so slightly shielded from all those other people mere feet away. It was there for me. It was all I needed to get where I was going, and no more. It wasn't really mine, but how could I find the owner? No one had been standing there when I spotted the machine from across the street and down the block. Surely whoever pulled it out of the machine was long gone. It was an omen. I think I was being rewarded for apologizing to the man. It made me smile all the way to the train station.