Tuesday Jun 8 This morning I let Jake sleep late. I talked to the guy that runs this hostel to see if we could leave some stuff while we went on the train. The plan is to pack what we can carry in a couple backpacks and leave all Jake's schools stuff here, not that I don't want to haul books around on the train system. Jake somehow brought all that stuff by himself through the bus system to the hostel. Sounds like he had to make a couple trips in and out of the bus to get all his stuff. So I am letting him sleep.
The Expo in Shanghai is sounding less and less worth it. Tonight some people we had dinner with said the only exhibit without a line is North Korea. So we decided to stay 2 nights in Shanghai, and the 1 night in Xian, and then back to Beijing to do the Great Wall, Forbidden City, etc.
Frankly we have had a blast just walking around and taste testing the street food. But today was work. Jake and the hostel guy spent a long time trying to figure out the trains. The upshot was Jake and I had to go to the ginormous train station to pick up the tickets. Did I say it was big? This station goes for blocks. There are huge lines for everything. This is where you see the population change from the urban dwellers to the country folks. I am guessing that because of the migration of people to the urban areas, the relatives come to the city to visit. I think I heard they need visas or permits to come to the city so things do not get out of hand. You can tell from their bags where they are from. The poorer country folks use bags tied up with ropes to carry their belongings. Again, they all seem healthy, happy and content, just with less fancy things. It looks like we may have to go back to get tickets again for the other train trip and to board the train tomorrow night.
I think I need a burger. I didn't have much appetite today and I feel fine so it may be I am burned out on Chinese food. There also is very little opportunities for a good cup of Joe. Jake got some good greasy noodles for lunch but for dinner we met with a few of jakes classmates, 3 of his teachers and assorted parents. We had a tough time finding a place that would take 12 people so the students knew of a less popular place which was pretty much empty (Hmmm) and we had a nice dinner there. They basically filled a big glass lazy Susan with food and beer and we spent the night rotating the food around and eating. The students and teachers all spoke Chinese and the parents and siblings stuck to English. One of the teachers speaks English pretty well so she accompanied Jake and I after dinner and showed us a big market where they sell the “scorpion on a stick” kind of stuff. This was a big outdoor market with stalls selling (hawking) every kind of weird food item and cheap souvenir. There was scorpion on a stick, seahorses on a stick, starfish on a stick, worm looking things on a stick, you name it. I guess if you wanted one (none of us bought anything) they would take the wiggle thing and deep fat fry it for you so you knew it was fresh.
Food on a stick is big here. Street vendors have little coal fires on the outside a stall with all kind of food on a stick. Didn't see much salad or fruit on a stick though.
We also stopped at a giant grocery store and bought some fresh fruit for tomorrow and bottled water. We have been staying away from the tap water just to be safe, which has been effective to date.
The teacher that came with us I think enjoyed practicing her English so I peppered her with questions and vise versa. She grew up in the country and came to the city to go to college. She was working on a graduate degree I guess in English. [Jacob's note: I actually think her degree is teaching English as a second language, although I'm not completely sure about that...] She was an only child (one child per family) and I did not realize that if you first have a boy, you may then have a second child. Also if two only children get married, they may have 2 children. We said good by on the subway and Jake and I headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.
Yeah, a burger would taste mighty fine right about now. Maybe tomorrow I will weasel over to a Mickey D's when no one is looking...
No comments:
Post a Comment