Suzhou

1/4/10

Happy New Year!

The sweetest of gifts was given to us for 2010: no school from January 1-3. We wanted to take advantage of the rare holiday from school, so we planned a last minute trip to Suzhou, a nearby canal town. Best of all, Helen and Elliot were going to meet up with us for the day. So the adventure began…

Hallie and I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to catch an 8:01 AM train to Suzhou. Our breakfast stop at Mister Donut and the 5-minute delay of our connecting Metro created a bit of chaos for us. (Hallie looked at me on the Metro and said we were going to have to, “Run, run Rudolph from Home Alone.” That was an understatement.) We got off at the Shanghai Railway Station at 7:56 AM and made a run for it. We flew through the security check, up and down flights of stairs nearly knocking people over, and got to the train with seconds to spare. Downing coffee and a donut became a quick regret before my all out sprint to the train.

After a somewhat leisurely/stomach-cramped 35-minute train ride (the movie, Taken, was showing in Chinese in our first class car of the train. Hal and I think the English-speaking train ticket lady is out for us, which is why she always conveniently hands over the expensive tickets. She knows we're defenseless with our limited Chinese. Ie: We're forced to buy whatever she sends our way), we arrived in Suzhou. We went straight to ‘The Master of the Net’s Garden’ to meet up with Helen and Elliot. The Garden was very small, but pretty. It seems like we chatted mostly about what we’ve been up to for the past two months. Exchanging stories about being sick and funny things our kids had done made time fly there.

Next, we went to the Twin Pagodas. It made me think about Sheridan and Jordan and how I miss them. The two pagodas are identical pink and yellow structures in the middle of a small, enclosed garden. We found a stone horse and had a photo session with it. It made all of us laugh too much I think. We hopped in a taxi to go to the Opera Museum, which was rather desolate. After, we walked to a big street and did some touristy shopping. Us three girls gave Elliot some advice on gifts to buy his Mom and sister.

After shopping we were all famished and found a dumpling place that embodied every bit of a fast food chain, but sold dumplings instead of hamburgers and fries. The place was packed and Helen fought tooth and nail for a table. While I know that yelling in Chinese is necessary, it’s still frightening. Haven’t gotten used to it. Lunch was nice and it gave us more time to catch up. We got our things and began walking towards the Silk Museum, but had to stop at KFC for some ice cream. We talked about how Chinese people make fun of fat people and it makes us very uncomfortable. The body image issue (especially for girls) is rampant here. Seeing someone slightly overweight is an extreme rarity.

On our way to the Museum, I had a very odd encounter. A gypsy child harassed me! She stuck her little paw in my jacket pocket and I immediately started screaming. And then I took off running. This tiny gypsy tot was running alongside me with her hand in my pocket. Too bad all she could grab was a used Kleenex. Hah, Karma. Everyone was laughing at me, but I was rather disturbed. It felt like a blur, but Hallie told me that her parents, the adult gypsies, were insisting on me giving her RMB. Not sure how I feel about those creatures…

Finally, we made it to the Silk Museum where Hallie and I had a rest outside while Helen and Elliot took a look inside (we were silked out from the Hangzhou Silk Museum that we saw in October with my Dad). Then we made it to ‘The Humble Administrator’s Garden.’ This was the big enchilada. It was a beautiful, massive garden filled with willow trees, pagodas, zig-zag walkways, ducks, Bonsai trees, rocks, and lots of Chinese people. It was one of those places that you feared closing your eyes because you might miss something. We weren’t keeping good track of time, but I happened to glance down at the Timex and saw that it was 3:45 PM. Our train was scheduled to leave at 4:35 PM. We didn’t need another close call, so decided to head to the train station. Of course we get outside to the main street and there are no cabs to be found.

After turning down a pedicab, which in hindsight we should have taken, we were walking. And walking some more. Helen, our American-born fluent Chinese-speaking savior, got some directions for us. The problem was we were already so far into no man’s land that we were going to have to take a round about way to get back. We said bye to Helen, who had to go to the bus station, and Hallie, Elliot, and I were on our own. We walked and got further away from civilization all while the clock was ticking. I looked down at my Timex and saw that it was 4:23 PM and thought, “There’s NO way we’re going to make it.” By some stroke of luck, we caught a lone taxi around this time and prayed we could make it.

Hallie and I fly out of the taxi, yelling goodbye to Elliot and we were Home Alone-ing it yet again. For the second time of the day, we were running, jumping, pushing, panting, and everything in between to catch our train. (Trains are never late, unlike planes. Glancing down at my watch and seeing 4:37 PM stare back at me, I knew there was no chance.) We made it to the platform out of breath to find that our train was not there yet. God was on our side that day. We hopped on the train. Joked about how we didn’t have to workout and had a lovely 35-minute ride back into Shanghai.

Runny Nose: Liu Biti