January 13, 2012

"Remember that time..." - A post to share the Christmas, and post-Christmas, craziness in China

This post is basically an attempt to catch up blogging on the recent shenanigans in China. It will be long. You have been warned.

Remember that time Emily forgot her passport and utter craziness ensued to make the train to Beijing?!

AKA: The single most intense half hour of my life

As a frequent traveler in the states I have always prided myself on my organization, preparedness, and timeliness on trips. This however is a different story entirely. It began as a simple weekend trip to Beijing. In an effort to not arrive in Beijing at 11pm I had canceled my last class of the day and had about an hour to make it to the train station. In china this is plenty of time, as they don't often begin boarding the train until 15 minutes prior to departure and going through "security" is pretty much just forming some semblance of a line to shuffle through a metal detector (which is more than often turned off). The first thing I did not allot time for was the shuttle bus to my apartment to be 15 minutes late. I thought this would be a problem and promptly called Emily to see if she had already arrived. She was still on the bus but said traffic in our area wasn't to bad right then.

Now before I continue, let me explain Tyler's phone situation. He paid ¥120 for a phone he should've gotten for free. why? BECAUSE IT IS A P.O.S. THAT NEVER WORKS. okay.

I exited the bus outside of the middle campus and went directly to the street to begin trying to hail a cab. Flailing around in the street trying to get a cab to stop I heard my phone start ringing. The conversation went something like this:
Me: Hello?
Tyler: Hey, have you left yet?
Me: No, the bus from the new campus to the middle campus was late. I’m still at the middle campus looking for a cab
Tyler:I'm - t- bus - on - Jie.
Me: WHAT
*load noise*
Tyler: I'M AT THE BUS STOP ON YUCAI.
Me: Oh hey your phone is working!
Tyler: I know, I hit it.
Me: Well hey, I'm trying to get a taxi I'll come pick up you. I'll call you when I'm headed your way.
Tyler: If I get one first I'll come to you.
Me: Okay bye.
After having two cabs pass me up after seeing I was a foreigner I all but jumped in front of the third cab. I hauled my backpack and messenger bag into the front seat with me and again my phone began ringing.
Me: Hello?
Emily: Where are you?
Me: I'm in a cab, I'm getting Tyler, we should still make it on time but it'll be close.
Emily:I need you to tell Tyler to call me it's really important.
Me: Okay gotta go bye.
Suddenly I remembered I still hadn't called Tyler to tell him I was coming. It would completely be our luck that we both got taxi's and were headed to get the other.
*ringing, then dead air*
Me: Hello?
Tyler: -a -t
Me: I CAN'T HEAR YOU JUST LISTEN. I'M IN A TAXI ON MY WAY TO YUCAI AND HUEBEI LU ABOUT 1 MINUTE. CALL EMILY RIGHT NOW. SHE IS UPSET ABOUT SOMETHING. GET YOUR DAMN PHONE FIXED. BYE
So we got to the intersection and sure enough there's Tyler on the opposite corner looking as frantic as ever. The taxi driver was starting to get pissed cause I wasn't telling him where to go so, in my total mastery of the Chinese language I just started pointing at Tyler and shouting "PENGYOU JAR, PENGYOU JAR". So Tyler sprinted across the intersection, hopped in the car, and gave the Taxi driver directions to...Emily's school? Here's how that conversation went:
Me: Tyler the train station is the other way!
Tyler: I KNOW WE HAVE TO GO GET EMILY'S PASSPORT AND WALLET SHE FORGOT THEM!
Me: WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE FORGOT THEM?!
*tyler begins shouting "faster" in Chinese at the taxi driver*
Tyler: She's calling somebody to let me in so I can pick them up.
Me: Tyler we only have 20 minutes left.
Tyler: I know this.
Me:fine.
So after a near death experience of our taxi driving crossing a 4 lane street on a red light, we arrived at Emily's school and Tyler took off running. After the longest 5 minutes ever he came running out of the gate. Passport in one hand, a giant wad of 100元 notes in the other. So we were headed across our district to the main train station...at 5:30pm on a weekday. Waiting in the traffic was brutal but I've gotta give our driver some credit cause he sure knew how to weave in and out of the main traffic bundle. We pulled up to the station and Tyler began to pay him and I got my bags situated and took off running. It was at this point that I realized I did not pack well for China. I was one belt to short, and loosing my pants fast, but at this point it was every man for himself. Tyler, the marathon runner he is, sprinted off to find Emily as I jogged my way across the parking lot and outdoor waiting area to the security line. Huffing and puffing I pulled out my ticket and began throwing 'bows and shoving my way through the crowd. I could see Tyler's head above the rest about four in front of me but no Emily. It was not until later that I learned he had used her as a battering ram to quickly traverse the security crowd.

I made it inside and promptly called Emily to find out which waiting room we were departing from. I took off sprinting through waiting room one, looking like god knows what to the Chinese travelers. I got up to the ticket lady and all but threw my ticket at her to hole punch. I ripped it out of her hand and headed jogging to platform 4. I could still see a few people headed in the same direction and hoped the train hadn't left yet. I was almost certain I was going to arrive in time to watch the train pull away from the platform when out of no where in front of me a man turns around and asks frantically in English,"WHAT PLATFORM ARE WE ON". It's Byron! The train was scheduled to leave at 4:54 and I made it onto the train with one minute to spare. Easily the closest I've ever come to missing any trip.

I am certainly not the first to recount this experience on my blog. Both Tyler [click here for link] and Emily [click here for link] have copies I believe. All I can think now is:
I would've paid good money to have been one of those random Chinese people in the Waiting room witnessing 6 foreigners almost miss a train to Beijing (and more importantly OUT of Shijiazhuang).

Remember that Christmas Eve we spent in the hostel bar?




Remember that that time that Canadian came up in Tienanmen and asked if we spoke English?

On Christmas day we decided to go over to Tienanmen sqaure to see Mao's body and kill some time. Now, there are foreign tourists every time i go to Tienanmen but I've never actually had one come up and initiate contact. As someone who is living here, I have adopted the Chinese repose to foreigners:
  1. Immediately stop what your doing
  2. Stare intensely and for as long as possible
  3. Take a picture
You can always pick out the expats because they will stare back at you lol
So Emily, Tyler, Megan(Tyler's sister), our English friends (from the video above), and I were walking along when this shaggy looking guy, around our age, walked up and asked if we spoke English. Probably a little overexcited, we quickly said yes and the boy inquired as to where he would be able to find a hostel to stay at. Yes people, he had come to Beijing without even figuring out where he was going to stay. So we directed him to our hostel, gave him their business card and told him we should meet up later for drinks. Upon returning to our hostel we found him napping on the couch. Later that morning we took him with us to the silk market. He hung out with us all night and he was really an interesting guy. Turns out he graduated with a degree is molecular science and then somehow ended up in Mongolia as a surgical assistant. As he put it, "I pretty much just hold people open". He had to come to China to get his Mongolian VISA renewed and then would be headed back north. He had been in China for pretty much the same length of time as us but seemed to be adopting to Mongolian faster than we were with Mandarin. When we asked when he would be going home he proudly told us he would be taking a cargo ship home, which would take about a year. Apparently it usually costs a lot of money but he wrote the CEO of the shipping company and got a trip for free. It would be a really cool way to see some port cities around the world, but don't worry Mom I have no intention of taking anything other than a plane back to the states.

Remember that Christmas Day we saw that famous dead guy?

I would say I had an eventful Chinese Christmas. Complete with gift shopping at the Silk Market and viewing the (mostly wax and eerily lit) body of Mao Zedong. Also, what brilliant Chinese person thought it would be a good idea to light his head up like and orange Christmas light??
Oh, they must've put a decoration or something on the castket for... nope that's his head

Remember that time we closed out Christmas in the hostel bar, the American way?

Christmas night was a good one. We drank and played games in the hostel bar then saw Byron off back to America at 3am. I think I went to bed around 7am? I think...

Remember that time I ordered a new part for my Xbox and Tyler's sister brought it halfway across the world?

My new power brick finally made it to China! Thanks Megan ^_^

Remember that time my TV glowed and sparks shot out the back?

So last week my TV made a funny noise, shot sparks out the back and stank up my apartment like burned rubber and years of Chinese dust. I fully expected Li to brush this off, as it would still turn on but the screen was all rainbow colored craziness. So, I sent him a little more intense text message:
My TV shot sparks and something inside caught fire. This is an electrical fire hazard and needs to be fixed immediately.
Sure enough two days later the fixit man (as Li calls him) was knocking on my door. In 30 minutes he disassembled my TV, found out what was wrong, and fixed it.


Remember that time I planned out my winter travel a month early, but did't start trying to get tickets until 3 days before departure?

oh china.