Newsletter (2017-2018) December 2017 Newsletter | Page 13

Create a Need for Camaraderie!
By Julie Lin
In this day and age there are different kinds of
relationships, but no matter what they are, re-
lationships were built up by a need for human
interaction that you cannot satisfy yourself. Ac-
cording to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a social
animal,” and therefore we naturally seek the
companionship of others. Some would say it is
“trust” that underlies and builds up a relation-
ship, but it is not just about that. With the desire
to be held and touched, it is the need to be loved
that often gets people involved in a relationship.
Since you cannot fulfill these needs on your
own, you need to rely on others to build a rela-
tionship, unless you don’t need company from
others. But that is impossible! Even for monks
who live alone need the company of God!
The bus was full of people and I sat at the back of
the bus, regretting my decision of taking the bus
instead of the train. After spending nine hours
trying to move through these terrible roads, we
were still stuck in the middle of nowhere. Even
worse, my internet stopped working and my
cellphone was almost out of power. I wanted
to talk to somebody to pass the time, yet I did
not know anyone on the bus, nor did I under-
stand Cantonese. Since a man was sitting next
to me, I did not dare ask for his help and tried
not to appear too concerned. Things were get-
ting worse when I ran out of water and the only
thing I could drink was my own saliva. My voice
cracked when trying to pronounce words, as a
result of being silent for too long. Exhausted and
desperate, I began to doze off.
My head bobbed up suddenly when I heard a
lady burst out sobbing. Judging from her ap-
pearance, I guessed that she might have been ex-
periencing a nervous breakdown and was over-
come by anxiety. The sound of sobbing became
louder, with a few people talking quietly and
snoring loudly in the dark. Now it was three in
the morning, with the street lights casting a dim
yellow glow on the roads, the cars, and the peo-
ple who had come out of their motor vehicles to
stretch themselves. About a half hour later, an-
other passenger on my bus said that it appeared
that there were some car accidents on the road,
and it would still take six hours to Guangzhou.
After hearing this, a middle-aged man who sat
in the front burst out, shouting swear words and
hitting the shelf above him. He was so furious
that he cursed the bus driver before he left the
Julie experienced what it was like to travel during
the National Holiday, one of the busiest holiday sea-
sons of the year in Mainland China.
DECEMBER 2017
During the National Day holiday, I went to
Guangzhou for a short break. Unfortunately, I
forgot to take China’s huge population into con-
sideration, took the intercity bus and innocently
believed that I could arrive there in three hours.
Thanks to the toll-free policy during this period
of time, it turned out that once the bus was on
the highway, it spent almost nine hours moving
less than a kilometer, and I got stuck in the traffic
jam for almost thirteen hours!
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