I have 2 hamsters in my apartment who have kept me company since my arrival. A grey male one named Mushu and a golden colored one girl named Jiao. I had found out the hard way they were opposite sex and had already sold their litter to my eager, anxious students when I brought in pictures of the babies to class. It was a lot of work cleaning, feeding and taking care of 7 babies, 4 boys, 3 girls for 4 weeks before they were weaned from their mother and I definitely did not want to go through that again. As soon as I could I bought a second cage to keep them separate. I was a bit late however as Jiao ended up having a second litter which she consumed (hamsters eat their litter if they have too many back to back which stresses them out and causes them to kill their young). It wasn't as bad as it sounds. I just woke up one day and there was no trace of them. Any of them. Not even any blood. I was a bit freaked out but I had read up on hamster litters after the first litter so I knew it was a possibility. She didn't seem bothered afterwards, smugly sitting in her nest snuggling in to nap.
It made me realize how hamsters might not really be the best pets for kids.....
When I got home that Thursday from Xian, I cleaned their cages thoroughly and created two small troughs of food for them to have while I was gone and ensured their large water bottles were filled up. My 2nd trip was going to be about a week long and I didn't want to come home to two small corpses. I couldn't find anyone to take care of them while I went away so this was the best I could do.
I did my laundry and double checked all my train ticket times to Hong Kong. I had to take 2 trains to be exact. One from the Wuxi station to the Shanghai one which would be about an hour and then from Shanghai I took a train to Shenzhen, which was right outside the outskirts of HK. From there I had to go through customs and find my way to my hostel.
A train from Shanghai to Hong Kong was almost a full day long. 18 hours to be exact. I had chosen to take a train instead of a plane because it was significantly cheaper and also I thought it would be a nice way to meet strangers and make friends and also ideally be a great way to see the countryside.
I was taking the train at about 9am and arriving in Shanghai around 10 where I would have to wait till about 1pm for the train to arrive that headed to Shenzhen.
I had come prepared electronically to keep myself entertained bringing along my laptop, my phone, all my chargers, a portable charger, tons of usb cords and also my Nintend 3DS with a Pokemon game in tow. I'm one of those people that can't go anywhere without technology. I had planned to document the entire trip as much as I could but often I would find myself lost in the moment forgetting to take pictures or make note of things.
When the train arrived, there were a few problems. A major one being I didn't bring any food with me on the train which was a mistake. There was nothing but traditional Chinese food sold on the train or in the train station itself except for a KFC. I still in my time here so far haven't been able to really fully adapt to local food and it was hard for me to order since I couldn't read menus that often they didn't even contain pictures. It hasn't been for lack of trying. Rose has tried various restaurants and ordered dishes for me I just couldn't stomach and I would often leave still hungry.
I should explain that authentic Chinese food is not at all like western Chinese food the latter of which has tons of sweet sauces, fried foods, lighter seasonings and well....cleaner meat that doesn't still have remnants of animal skin and tiny bones. It is hugely adapted for western tongues. In "real" China, you won't find General Tsao's, sweet and sour chicken, pork fried rice or beef and broccoli. I've yet to actually see an egg roll.
So I ate a chicken sandwich and soda at KFC in the Shanghai station before departure but I didn't buy anything extra to take with me. I ended up not eating very much during my 18 hour train ride as they only served a small foil tray of strangely flavored noodles, extremely bitter vegetables and a chicken leg. I bought a ton of fruit from the fruit carts which sustained me somewhat for at least a day.
The train was nice but it was an older model different than the ones I've seen on the Internet to get a feel for what it was going to look like. The carpet was dark but oily and hiding all kinds of dirt to be fore. The inside of the train corridors had small rooms with 4 beds in each room. Each train is divided into 4 different types of areas. You have hard seats and soft seats which were actually just that, seats as if you were on an airplane but slightly less comfy and imagine sitting in it for a whole day. It's doable but not the best way to travel but the cheapest. Then they had hard and soft sleepers. Hard sleepers aren't really hard, the beds are slightly smaller and less cushioned but they still had cushions. There were set up like bunk beds along the side of the corridor out in the open. They were the cheapest bed seats. I ended up with the most expensive seats so to speak, mostly because the cheap beds were sold out but I was kind of grateful. The soft sleepers had fluffy blankets and were in small private compartments, 4 beds in each compartment. I had the top left bunk which was a bit of a struggle to get to. There wasn't a ladder, just a small metal foot step attached to the side of the wall at the foot of the lower bunk. I had to step rather high, my knee almost to my chest and then while grabbing the railing of my top bunk haul my body up. It was not for the weak.
The foot hoist for the top bunk
The top view from my bunk
View of door and bottom bunk across from me
My bunk
There was a small shelf next to my bed, a reading light at the head of it, and then another shelf over the door at the foot of my bed for me to put any extra bags. I followed suit with the one guy who was also in my compartment. He put his suitcase under the bed and upon seeing my confusion, gestured and helped slide my suitcase under the bed. I thanked him and then hauled myself onto my bed and laid down and played a mandarin lesson on my iPhone while I waited for the train to get ready to depart.
As I waited, the guy on the lower bunk below sat on the edge of his bed and I noticed he kept looking up at me. I was used to puzzled looks of curiosity but he looked like he wanted to say something. Finally, I turned down my headphones and finally looked at him and smiled.
"Hi." he said.
"Hi"
"Where are you from?"
I told him in Chinese I was from America. I asked where he was from. He mentioned a city that started with a 'W' that I wasn't familiar with.
He started to speak faster, but I then told him I only spoke a little mandarin. He told me in broken English his name was Will and he was heading to Shenzhen for something work-related. He asked me a little bit about what I do and what I was doing. We had some difficulty communicating, him in English and me in Chinese so we would use our phone translation apps trying to speak the other's language. After about 15 minutes or so a young couple walked into our compartment. All four bunks were now officially taken. They placed their stuff on the top bunk and later shared the bottom bunk together (thank goodness no funny business happened between them during the trip). About an hour later, I was hungry and asked them in Chinese where to get food. The boy of the couple walked me to the food car but the staff told me they weren't serving dinner till 5pm and our train was to take off at a quarter to 2. Later, that was when I found out about the lack of western food but I ate what I could stomach from the foil plate when it came around dinner time and decided to read a book on my Kindle.
The train was cold and poorly heated. I threw on my warmest hoodie, a blue and white Penn State one I bought which was perfect for those terrible winters in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I stayed huddled in bed till my phone was about to die and then sat outside in the corridor to charge it where there were a couple of outlets everyone was huddled around waiting to charge their devices. There were only two seats that folded out from the side of the wall. I managed to score one after a time and brought out my Pokemon game while I waited for my phone to charge so I could set an alarm to get up in time before my stop. We were to arrive in Shenzhen at around 8:30am.
As I played my Nintendo, there were children running up and down the corridor, many of whom had never seen a game console. They stopped and stood right in front of me staring at the game. One kid practically placed himself between my legs watching me. There is no concept of space in China for a reason. Because they're such a communal society, think of it as sharing space with your very large extended family. But you like...actually like your extended family. Again, individualism, being by yourself is very rare. Their grandmother eventually came along, probably thought I was uncomfortable and chased them off but they came back. She tried a few more times and then gave up. I'm usually really uncomfortable around little, little kids but I was amused despite my personal space being invaded. One kid asked me if I was American in Chinese. I answered him. They all couldn't have been older than 7 or 8. The kid near my legs probably 5 or 6.
Gaming was banned in China so video game systems are almost non-existent. The government banned it in 2000 and lifted the ban just last year. Consoles are just trying to get a foothold in the market here. Most Chinese do mobile games from their phones. So the kids probably never seen or heard of Pokemon unlike the little kids in the states.
It was around midnight and I was pretty exhausted. My phone charged slowly but once it got to around 90 percent, I unplugged it, set the alarm for 8 and passed out. I was nervous about how the customs would work out since it was a holiday month and getting lost. I would find it'd be easier than I thought the next morning.
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