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Published: September 4th 2013
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Packed in a Waiting Room
Waiting, waiting, waiting... i am going to hop back in time to August 21, when the CTLC peeps hopped on a train from Beijing to Shenzhen.
Well three days prior to riding the train, most of our luggage was shipped to Shenzhen for our conveniance. The train wouldn't be able to store all of our luggage, so it had to be sent. Anyway, after sending my two suitcases to Shenzhen, I was left with a backpack of belongings to take care of me for three to four days. In those days I had to teach twice, attend a banquet (which I didn't know at the time) and ride a train comfortably. In the end, I was glad I sent it.
Hopping off the bus at the train station, I was carrying a ukulele on my back, a backpack on my front (for security reasons), my man satchel on my left (ok a purse), and a bag of groceries and jug of water in my right hand. We were crammed into a large waiting room intertwined with random Chinese passangers, each pushing their way to the front of the crowd (there are no lines in China). As the bell tolled and the personel
Misery Loves Company
My Aussie friend, Serene on the left. Hannah posing in the middle, and my teaching partner on the right, Parker. waved us in, we were pushed forward by the crowd behind us, and we pushed back as the people tried to pass us. Either way, I knew the train wouldn't leave without us, but I honestly got to the point, where I would "accidently" push myself into a guy who kept trying pass me within a massive mob.
I was told I would be stuck on a train for 24 hours. They would be hard beds. There would be six in each area, and I would have to guard my stuff at all times. This left me worried. Think about what this means?
I am glad I kept the bar low, cause my expectations were definitely surpassed. The hard sleepers had a thin pad. There was a little more space than I thought, even with six beds in a room. There were no doors between areas, and we were free to move as we pleased. There were probably 20 sections of six beds in each train car. Within our train car, each section was CTLC members, except for six beds in the very middle. With the plethora of CTLCers. We were able to leave most of out stuff
Gotta Make Do with the Situation
I decided pictures were necessary. See Daniel, me, Andrew (in back), and Vince (doing something) while we talked to our friends. This was 24 hours of sleeping, playing cards, playing boggle, and watching Big Bang. I would rather endure 24 hours on a train than 12 hours on a plane.
The lights went out at 10pm, so most of us went to bed. Earlier that day we had ventured the Forbidden Palace and packed for our short adventure. So we were all exhausted. Sadly at 6:30am, the train's personel came walking through the entire train, opening the curtains which let a blinding light in. Waking most of us up. Caitlin, who was assigned in the bunk next to me, even got up and closed to curtain. Two minutes later they came back and opened it. The loud speaker started playing music, which for those who were next to the speaker, were driven crazy. Eventually they found a way to dismantle it. So inspite of the weird chinese music and the blinding light, most of us tried to sleep a couple more hours.
I now understand why Sheldon Cooper likes to ride trains.
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