The trek to China is long, tiring, and at times frustrating and tedious and even though I had started mentally preparing for it a few days ago, it was still kind of insane. My parents drove Sean and I to the airport on Thursday morning. We left at around 5:30 am for our flight that left from Grand Rapids to Chicago at 7:50 am. Everything went fine and there were no delays and our flight from Chicago left on time at 10:30 am. The flight was fine; the food was good, our respective seat partners were delightful, the movie selection was agreeable and we didn't have to make any emergency landings (there were two close-call medical emergencies). I watched "The Joneses," "Back-up Plan," "Jerry Maguire," and "Mercy" (I know - that's a lot of movies, but the flight was over 14 hours long!) I had been saving a paperback for this journey: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and I loved it! It's a little more graphic and violent than I am used to but because it was so suspenseful and addicting I finished it by the time I was actually on the train back to Changzhou.
We reached Shanghai at 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday and had to immediately change clothes because of the hot 85 degree temperature and extreme humidity. Getting through customs and immigration went fine and pretty soon we were on the metro to the train station. Unfortunately, all the train tickets were sold out at that particular station so we had to get back on the metro and go to another one (there are three train stations in Shanghai.) Now, keep in mind that this is no easy feat because we were traveling loaded down with our suitcases, on a Friday night, in the main transportation hubs of one of the busiest and crowded cities in the world. I should have taken a picture of what we looked like - it was a little ridiculous. I had a rolling duffel, a big backpack that I wore on my back and my carry-on backpack that I wore on my front. Uff. It was NOT my favorite thing to do and I got a little grumpy. Sean, however, was in incredibly high spirits even though he was covered in poison ivy from a camping trip the weekend before.
After a three hour wait at the train station, we boarded the train and headed to our city. From there we caught a taxi and made it to the university. It was so nice to crawl into my bed after a shower and some macaroni and cheese that I had packed from the USA. As an added plus, the mosquitoes haven't found me yet and I woke up to only one clinging hopefully to the outside of my net this morning.
Breakdown of trip:
Ride to airport - 1 hour
Grand Rapids to Chicago - 1 hour
Waiting in O'Hare - 2 hours
Flight to Shanghai - 14 hours ($927 one way)
Immigration/Customs/baggage claim - 1 hour
Metro to first train station - 1.5 hours ($1)
Metro to second train station - 1 hour ($1)
Waiting for train - 3 hours
Train to Changzhou - 1 hour ($12)
Taxi to Jiangsu Teachers University of Technology - 0.5 hr ($5)
Walk the rest of the distance to my apartment - 0.5 hr
Total travel time = 27 hours
Quote from my mom: "That trip is not for the faint of heart" . . . Indeed
Things that came rushing back to mind about being in China:
It's HOT
It's normal to be covered with a layer of permasweat 24/7
It's crowded
There aren't many escalators or elevators (going down flights of stairs with all my stuff was really, really not fun and was actually quite difficult)
People stare at you if you are not Chinese
People are intensely curious about you and what you are doing there if you are not Chinese
This country makes me feel like a chubby, tall, white, giant
The Chinese are very friendly and interested in you and many tried to make conversation with me and/or help me with my bags
There are really interesting/different smells here
Questions that were repeatedly asked by strangers:
Where are you going?
Why do you have so many bags?
Where are you from?
What do you do here?
It's good to be back! I'm working on getting unpacked and tomorrow (Sunday) I am going to start thinking about lesson plans since classes start on Monday. Fire up!
We miss you Sarah! Your trip sounds like it was trying, but you made it... Hopefully things go smoothly from here on out.
--The Hawkins Family
PS. I loved the trilogy by Larsson; let me know if you enjoy the others as well!
Wow, how did you survive that trip, that was def worth blogging about. No wonder you were grumpy. Furthermore how did you carry all that luggage thru all that?