Goodbye Xiangyang!!

The trip was an approx. 28 hour train ride deep into the West of China. The four of us teachers were all separated on the train, and I was a little nervous about being by myself. It’s big in China to be wary of thieves on trains…I’ve even watched a Chinese movie just about that subject. I had more bags than I could fit on the top bunk with me (I had a small suitcase…and remember that top bunks are teeny, with just enough space for sleeping). So I wasn’t sure how I was going to keep my bags safe.

But as soon as I got to my section of the train, and I was looking for a place to put my things, the Chinese family that was in the same section with me was very nice and helped me put them somewhere. I had intended to pretend to speak no Chinese while on the train so as to avoid hours of being interviewed when I mainly just wanted to rest. But I needed help with my stuff and so I had to use it. Of course, once they discovered I could speak Chinese I was certainly interviewed. But these people were very nice and so it wasn’t as tedious as I thought it would be.

They asked about American culture and compared it with their own. And I talked to the young lady of the family, her name was Wang Qie. She was 24 and pregnant, traveling with her parents back home to where her husband lived. I asked her if she was excited about her kid, and she said, “Meh, it’s okay.” I thought that was interesting, because that’s not a typical response that someone in the West would say. But I understand why she said it…it’s a Chinese cultural expectation and it brings honor to your parents to get married and have a kid, preferably a son. So she wasn’t having a kid necessarily because she wanted one, as most Americans are, but to simply fulfill a societal expectation. I liked her though, she was spunky and in fact she knew a whole lot about different things. I asked her if she had a job right now, and she said, “No,” then she joked, “taking care of my parents is my job now.” I really enjoyed talking to her until she and her parents got off the train.

But really, most of the time it wasn’t just me and Wang Qie talking together, it actually was more of a big party at my section of the train. One of train workers  stopped by to chat with all the people in that section, I have a feeling it was because I was there. Why? Because that was everyone’s initial excuse to come over to the section. It started off as, “Where are you from?” And I said, “America,” and then they’d join in on the conversation talking about the Americans they’ve met or what they knew about America…and it was just a big party over in my section. Even some people that weren’t part of the party were watching us and listening to the conversation. It was actually really nice though and didn’t feel like I was with a bunch of strangers because everyone was so friendly and jolly. One lady even gave me her number to call if ever I was in Shiyan, a city very nearby Xiangyang.

Even the next day in the morning and noon before we got off the train a bunch of the train workers joined the one that was always at my section talking, and joined in on the conversation. I was asked, “Those other foreigners that are here on the train, are they with you too?” I said yes they were, which then led to comments such as, “Do they speak Chinese?” “I don’t think they speak Chinese.” “They don’t speak Chinese as good as she does.” “Next time you take a train, you should buy the tickets all at the same time so you don’t get separated like this.” I didn’t bother explain to them that we had all kind of joined together at last minute and our plans originally had not coincided. Then they proceeded to talk about things like the weather, what the weather in Kunming was like, what the weather in all the places the train went and each person’s hometown was like…with occasionally asking me, “Have you been to ___?” “No I haven’t.” “One day when you have time, you should go. It’s a great place. That’s where I’m from.” Ultimately, I didn’t have to do a whole ton of talking the whole trip; all the Chinese people at my little party were very content to hold their own conversation with me just being there being enough. I probably couldn't have jumped in too much even if I wanted to.

Also, during that time I was in fact able to rest for a good amount of time. On the first day of the train ride after the conversation petered out and everyone went to rest, I fell asleep. And /I slept for a LONG time. I just couldn't get up. I could hear them talking below me, asking if their “American friend is still asleep”, but I couldn't answer them because I was still in the sleep world. And when it was lights out, I slept once again, but not before watching my favorite movie The Fellowship of the Ring. It was warm in the train and for the first time in almost a month, I could sleep without shivering and tensing my whole body to resist the cold. I think that this was the first stage of my getting better. I wasn’t better yet, but even just knowing that I was getting away from the cold was making me feel much better. Even my computer seemed better because even just a day before I was never able to watch a three hour movie on just the battery alone, and now I could all of a sudden do so…I think because the system was not working harder through the cold.

And finally, at 3 pm of the second day, we got off the train…into gentle warm breeze and sweet smells.