Train Travel

Ok. So Xi'an is a LONG way from Guzhen. A long way. And I am not exaggerating. However, that does not deter a determined soul like myself. So. On Saturday I, along with the other girls I live with, took a 2 hour car ride to the train station. Once we arrived there our coordinator ditched us in order to catch her train, and we were left on our own. Through the help of some merciful people who looked at our tickets and pointed us in the right direction... we boarded our train. Because it is a National day here in China, train tickets were VERY hard to get. But we were lucky, and we got 5 hard seats and 2 standing tickets.

A standing ticket? What is that you may be asking.... I shall explain.

There is not a lot of space in China. Remember those rumors about the one child policy? Well the one child policy is true, and in full force (we learned that people here are punished through fines and things when they have more than one child) and that is because China. Is. Really. Crowded.
Really.

And the trains in China are no exception. So after they fill up all the seats on a train, they have standing tickets. Which means you crouch in the aisles. Or stand in the aisles, or buy the little plastic seats that they come buy selling to squat on. Or you sit on your luggage, or swap with people in seats when they get up to stretch their legs.

Hopefully the picture will help illuminate:

This is an awful photo to help you understand. Because all the good ones about how crowded it was are on someone else's camera. Plus this was taken towards the end of the ride, when about a bajillion people had already gotten off the train. However. You can see me sitting in the aisle. And you can see Emma standing next to me. And you can see those people behind me chillin out. Now imagine that you are in my shoes. And you stand up. And the whole train is completely packed, and you have to walk over people to get to the bathroom.

I hope I am painting this picture.

Now that you understand a little. I will tell you that the 26 HOUR long train ride actually wasn't that bad. The standing stuff was in it's way, kind of nice, because we got to stretch our legs. Sleeping was nigh unto impossible, but somehow we managed a bit of it. I even curled up on top of a suitcase on the floor at one point... haha. Rachel had fun taking pictures of that one.

I only had to attempt the bathroom twice. The bathroom on the train was a squatter too. Which is a mixed blessing, because while it is more sanitary, it's also a lot harder to do on a moving, bouncing, bumping train.
That's all I'll say about that.

During the course of this train ride I made some friends. One of them was named Nash, and he spoke incredibly good English. Even knew what a simile was. He was surprised that 7 American girls were traveling alone without a male escort. He wanted to know why we didn't have a man with us. We told him that we didn't think it was odd, girls in America travel by themselves all the time. He said that is not so in China, and pointed out that American women are more independent.

I love Chinese people. I love the way that they just say what they think. There isn't anything to apologize about, things are just how they are. Sometimes it makes me look at things in a new way. For example: Nash asked where we all were, since we weren't all sitting together (we couldn't all get seats next to each other, and Megan ended up in a different car, and one of the seats was about 4 rows away from the others.) We told him Megan was in the next car over, and after that he referred to her as 'the pitiful one,' which was quite comical. Then later when I was going to go take my turn in our seat 4 rows away, I noted that a man had climbed into it and fallen asleep. Because it was our seat, I could have kicked the man out. But standing felt good and he looked so peaceful.... I didn't want to wake him up. So I opted to stand for a while longer. Nash was so confused. He informed me that I was 'too tender.' But not in a condescending way. He was just pointing it out. I think it's safe to say that we as American girls perplexed him.

I made another friend during this train ride. She told me her name in Chinese, but I can't remember it. Chinese names are hard to pronounce, and harder to remember. But she was wearing a purple shirt, and she gave me the most productive Chinese lesson I've had yet. She didn't speak a lick of English, and would jabber and jabber in Chinese... at first I wasn't understanding a thing. But gradually I caught on to a few words, and would repeat, then she'd get really excited, and so I'd repeat some more. A man a few seats over spoke a few words of English, and made helpful interjections every once in a while.... it was great. Half the train car was laughing at some of the things I said at one point. BUT I got a compliment. My 1st ever compliment. Mr. helpful interjections man told me that my Chinese pronunciation is very good. Take that! Although, Nash laughed at my dismal attempts at the 4 tones and called them 'ridiculous.'   Oh well. Chinese is HARD.

Back to the train ride. Eventually we did arrive in Xi'an., and we got off that blasted train. And EVENTUALLY and with a few minor mishaps involving some very helpful Chinese people, a few rude rickshaw drivers, and a ride in a cop car, (amongst other things...) we did find our Hostel. And I slept in a bed. A real bed. That is more comfortable than my bed in Guzhen. Go figure.

Xi'an is wonderful.  Totally worth the 26 hour train ride. I can't wait to get started on my next post. But since this particular post is probably feeling long to you, I'll leave off. Because believe me, I KNOW how it feels to be stuck on a ride much longer than you want to be.