We are wrapping up another busy week that has mainly revolved around the upcoming visit from Mom and Dad Stiens. It also included a surprise that I have been cast as Prince Charming in a rendition of Snow White. You probably know just as much about this performance as I do. Yesterday one of the teachers told me she needed my help and that I was going to be in the play. She didn't include when the play was or provide my lines. Just that we were going to practice on Friday.
On Friday morning we were running around getting ready for kindergarten, finding a room for the visitors, and providing our travel schedule to the administration when I was informed that our play practice would be at 9:50. That just so happens to coincide with my kindergarten class. After saying that I had to be at kindergarten at 9:50, it was determined that it wasn't a problem. Maybe I don't need practice? There is a chance this play will be on Monday, so here's hoping I'm a quick study.
Back to the visitors. While Mom and Dad Stiens will be in China our itinerary will include visits to Shanghai and Xian along with our time in Beijing. These three cities are not anywhere close to each other. My first suggestion was to take advantage of the sleeper trains. The ladies in our party quickly nixed this idea due to the lack of western bathing facilities on said trains. With that option out of the way we decided to go with the high-speed or bullet trains. Now that we had decided on our mode of transportation it was up to yours truly to get us on board. After some extensive research on purchasing train tickets in China. I found that their are a couple of English speaking ticket counters in the city but they are a haul from our home here in Yongding. There are train ticket outlets all over the city, including one just a few kilometers from our home. Another interesting fact about train tickets in China is that they don't go on sale until 18 days before departure. You can buy them before that but you have to use a travel agency a pay a nice mark-up of about 25%+. Also, if you are literate in Mandarin you can purchase them at www.12306.cn, and a fellow teacher volunteered to help me go this route.
We worked at this route for about 30 minutes and decided we should take the short drive to the ticket office. After school we hopped into the principal's car (his assistant also teaches a couple of English classes) and headed out to buy the tickets and fill-up the car. Our short drive took a bit of a detour as we missed the ticket office on the first pass. Then took a few more minutes attempting to parallel park before deciding the spot wasn't big enough and then took a few more minutes on a different parallel parking attempt. Without too much elaboration, I got to drive in China and we made it to the ticket office. Once in the office we quickly found out that they only take cash, so right back out we went and walked to an ATM.
At the ATM I realized we had a problem as I needed almost four times the withdrawal limit that was posted on the ATM. After asking if the branch was still open so I could make a larger withdrawal, my co-worker looked at me dumbfounded and said just make another withdrawal. Apparently it is not a daily withdrawal limit but an actual single withdrawal limit. There was no need to even take the card out. I got the max cash and hit the withdrawal button again and got the max cash and hit the withdrawal button again and got the max cash and hit the withdrawal button again and got almost the max cash and we were on our way back to the ticket office.
I had all the train tickets (sixteen in all) that I needed written out and my co-worker and the two ladies were pretty wide-eyed when they saw/heard what all I was buying They were quickly more wide-eyed when they told me how much I owed and watched me pull all the cash out of my pockets. Thank goodness there is so little crime in China. We had our tickets and were off to the gas station. At the gas station I learned it cost RMB320 to fill up a Hyundai Elantra. A rough conversion is about $50. My first thought was how do cab driver's make any money and my second thought was it's been so long since I filled up in the US I have no idea how this compares and there is the liters to gallons issue to make it even more difficult.
All that drama took place on Wednesday and Thursdays lead Julie and I to our branch schools. The excitement at my branch school was that one of the geese was laying eggs. Every couple hours one of my fellow English teachers would scurry into the office with a fresh egg. After the third I finally asked what they (the teachers) planned to do with them (the eggs). They hadn't decided yet and were waiting until they had four (one for each of them) before they made a decision. One of the teachers did tell me to invite my parents to come pick eggs. Unfortunately, I thought she said pick axe and well it took about a minute and a half to get that corrected.
Advancing to this morning (Friday) my friend who helped me get the train tickets was assisting with setting up the lodging for Mom and Dad Stiens and told me that the room was very simple and the school would get my parents a hotel room. This is just a small example how generous our hosts are and how much they coddle Julie and me. A larger example, and Mom and Dad may want to take them up on part of it, was that another administrator offered to have one of the school employees drive my parents around the city in what sounded like a private tour guide role. We certainly are surrounded by some very kindhearted people.
Well I feel like I've gone on for quite a while and I'm sure there are still a few matters I should wrap up for our visitors arrival tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying the NCAA tournament and didn't everyone think New Mexico was going to make a run to the Final Four?
All the best,
Ryan
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