Journey to Changzhou

The day started out with a bus ride to the train station in Hong Kong. The train station only allowed us to check one suitcase, which they charged us for... meaning we had to check the lighter bag so we wouldn't get charged as much. All of us were so confused about what to do or where to go that we were just running around the train station laughing because I'm sure we looked pretty funny! We were also trying to hurry because we were afraid we were going to miss our train, and that definitely wouldn't be good. Luckily we made it to the train and all got on just fine. Our suitcases were so heavy that all the Chinese people were just laughing at us as we tried to put our suitcases in the over head racks. Its OK though, we worked together and got it done. The train ride was about an hour and a half and we enjoyed the little break of lugging our suitcases around.

The next part in our journey... finding Mr. Wu. Mr. Wu is a teacher from the school we are teaching at. He was suppose to meet up with us and take us to the school so we would get there safely. As soon as we found him, we were all so happy to find him so we didn't have to make this journey alone. The only problem with Mr. Wu is that he doesn't speak hardly any English at all. That made it very difficult to know what we needed to do. Mr. Wu told us that our bags weren't going to go with us on the train and that they would come two days later. So we had to pack everything we were going to need for the next two days. Then it was a mad rush following Mr. Wu around the packed train station, trying to keep up with him, dodging Chinese people, and trying to understand what was going on. It was CRAZY! After probably two hours of trying to get our luggage and ourselves from one train station to the next, we were on the next train headed to Changzhou. This train was a sleeper train, they stacked the beds three high, with two sets of the beds in each "room." Then we just chilled on the train for the next 18 hours. It was very cramped and there were hundreds of people cramped into this little train cart. How people live like this, I don't know. Mr. Wu bought us tons of Chinese food on the train and we were able to try all kinds of interesting food. Sometimes I just sat and watched the Chinese people eat. It is almost disturbing. Everything that is unacceptable in America is totally acceptable in China. Like double dipping, cutting your food with your teeth and putting it back on the plate, spitting the bones or the food you don't like on the table... its pretty funny.

After the 18 hour train ride, we went to this other building where all of our suitcases were. It turned out that all our luggage came with us and we were able to take it with is that day to Changzhou. Yeah! We were so happy! Mr. Wu told us the bus from the school would be here to pick us up in 30 minutes.

so we waited ...

and waited...

3 hours later we were still waiting

and waiting...

Finally after 6 and a half hours the bus was here to pick us up! We all clapped and screamed for joy. We just wanted to be at the school, in our beds.

The bus ride back took us about two hours and to our surprise, the night wasn't over yet. Mr. Wu took us to a nice restaurant where we met up with some other teachers from the school. King, Andy, Mr. White, and Mr. Wu all ate dinner with us. As we sat down at the table, there were bottles of beet by our plates. "Drink" Mr. Wu said as he motioned to drink the beer. "Let's celebrate." We all looked at each other and chuckled. As we tried to explain to them that we didn't drink beer, they didn't seem to understand. Carly (my headteacher) said "we NEVER drink beer, not EVER." They told us it was OK, it could be our first time. haha. How do you explain to a bunch of men that don't speak an English that we don't drink beer? Finally they stopped pushing it and gave us some orange juice to drink. What a funny experience.

After a very interesting dinner, we FINALLY arrived at the school. We were happy to be there and finally in our own rooms. It was nice to be somewhere I can call home while in China.