A couple of friends and I were eating at a restaurant near campus. These lunch dates have become regular during the summer, and I’ve really enjoyed talking and laughing with this couple and their son.
Today we were at a noodle shop that has a style of hand-pulled noodles from the north of China. 兰(lán)州(zhōu)拉(lā)面(miàn) is one of my favorite foods here in China, although this shop isn’t part of the chain, it is quite similar in the selection of dishes. The people that own it have been back home in Qingdao for most of the summer holiday, and we were super excited that they had finally returned and opened their shop full of delicious food.
My friends tried to convince their son to play with the little boy who spent most of his time in the shop while his parents were making noodles and waiting on tables. Ruimi was feeling a bit shy, so he sat with us.
As we talked and enjoyed our noodles, it started pouring outside. The rain was coming down so hard that several people went out to take photos and videos of the rain. Water was starting to gather in the streets, so we decided to stay in the shop for a while and keep chatting. Showers are common and usually fairly brief.
“I really wanted to get an early start on my work today!” Alex moaned. She works online, but she has to keep afternoon and evening hours to accommodate the schedule of people in her home country.
We had umbrellas, but it was raining so much, it didn’t seem like they would do much good. Finally, our food was gone, the drinks that we had ordered were also gone, and we decided that the rain was now light enough that we should be able to make it home.
We hadn’t counted on the flooding from the torrential downpour for the last hour or so. During the spring semester, we had an inordinate amount of rain. It rained almost every day for four months. I went to the north of China for a short vacation, and my favorite thing about the trip was the sun and blue sky. But during those four months of rain, I hadn’t noticed any flooding, and I figured that the new drains that had been installed over the last several years were working.
Unfortunately, those drains failed to work this time. Perhaps the intensity of the rain was too much for them to handle or perhaps because there was a lot of construction on campus, but when we walked on campus, we noticed that the water was quite deep. I had rain boots on that came about half way up my calf, but as soon as I stepped into the brown water, they were covered.
“Isn’t there any way to go around?” I suggested before stepping down the stairs and into the water.
“No, the other road is blocked off.”
“What if we go all the way around, up by the other soccer field?”
“But it’s so far, and it’s probably flooded too.”
In the end, we all stepped into the secret sauce that had become a lake outside of the boys’ dorm and two of the cafeterias. I saw one video that a student of mine posted of his dorm. The water completely covered the floor of his dorm room and looked to be about a foot deep.
Bar was worried about all of the construction equipment and possible nails or sharp materials. We walked carefully, especially when we saw a few bricks floating by in the mess. Bar was carrying Ruimi, which was good because the water would have nearly covered him!
We were all careful, and no one was injured. We also smiled at the people around us as we waded through the water together. Something about going through something crazy and not very pleasant with other people forms a bond with those other people.
Later that day, I decided to try to go out again, and since it had stopped raining about an hour before, the streets were already starting to dry. When I rode my bike past the big gate leading to campus, I saw some workers with giant hoses washing the mud off of the streets. I assumed that the school wanted the area to look nice to welcome the new students and returning students for the start of the semester a week or so after the shower.
In the evening, I also passed the location of the original flooding, and the area was free of floods, but there was still some debris around. I hoped that all of the campus cats had found safe places to wait out the storm. As I rode past the cafeterias and boys’ dorms, I also noticed the smell of bleach, and I was thankful that the school seemed to be taking measures to make sure that everything was sanitary and safe!