7 Days in a New City

Day 1: Train Fights

Chinese New Year is the biggest land migration of the year, with billions of people relocating to spend time with their family. In the train station I felt it. As people pushed, shoved, elbowed their way to the front of the line...and I matched shove for shove, elbow for elbow and stare for stare. Yes I had my ticket, but with so many people, finding a place to put my luggage would be the problem. So gates open and we start our Asian shuffle to push hundreds of people through a one person gate. And once I made it through and broke from the throngs of people I started running. “No one's going to take advantage of this foreigner!” I thought. So I make it to my seat quite pleased with myself, showed the car conductor the note my friend made me which basically says, “Hello, my name is WenYi (chinese name). My Chinese is not very good, please tell me when we get to Yang Quan.” So as people start loading on, I find out that because it was the day before New Year's eve most people already went home. After the first stop the train was already practically empty. Man am I a jerk.

Day 2: New Year's eve

We got home late the night before, after midnight to be exact. So this morning I meet my friend's parents. Wow I'm a great sight, “Hey Mrs. and Mr. my friend's parents, sorry I look like trash and don't understand anything your telling me!” Yes I need to pump up my Chinese language. Well after a delicious breakfast of dumplings, I showered, put on my clothes and stink. The wonderful smoke filled train ride of the night before has permeated my clothes (specifically my jeans) into an aroma of stale cigaret smell. Good thing no one will be able to tell, cuz everyone smokes here. Lunch rolls around and...mmmm dumplings. We go over and meet my friend's uncle's family and after a few hours come back. Dumplings for dinner! If you haven’t figured it out dumplings is the traditional food for the Chinese New Year, so we will be eating them a lot. Good thing I like them.

One thing I might not have mentioned is fireworks are going on all day. But the big stuff comes out closer to midnight. But for 30 years (this year being the 30th) there is something called the Spring Festival Gala, starts at 8 pm and goes till about 12:30. During that time (well until about 11:30) the fireworks get relatively quiet as most of China tunes in. It was pretty interesting considering I couldn’t understand what most people were saying, but then midnight comes and the sky was lit up, kids shooting of fireworks (some not very well cuz they went towards buildings), firecrackers going off next to cars, it was fun, crazy, and insane.

After crawling into bed I noticed that the family had given me a red envelope under my pillow, it felt so good to be included in the festivities.

Day 3: New Year's Day

Sleeping in was nice, but woke to some more fireworks in the morning. Shortly after waking up we went to my friend's uncle's house again. Here was where most of the family would be gathering. As people came in I aroused quite a bit of attention. I think they must have been thinking “Does anyone know there is a non-Chinese girl in the house?” All the while people preparing for lunch (which is the main meal of the day for this holiday). We sat down and there were a lot of dishes, most I had never tried before and most I'll be ok not trying again, but the atmosphere was fun. Before eating we toasted to a Happy New Year and throughout the lunch some people would toast others individually. For instance the Grandpa and one of my friend's aunts wanted to specifically toast with me. Afterwards we relaxed, some of the family began to play a popular game called Ma Jong (different from the computer version). I really don't know how it works, but it looked fun, they played for at least 3 hours. Towards dusk I went walking on the streets with some of the family (younger generation) and it was nice. Even though today was so simple and we didn't do a lot I really enjoyed myself. I got some extra attention cuz I was the foreigner and a guest, but I wasn't treated like some wild animal at the zoo, which is how I feel sometimes when I walk down the streets. I really liked it.

Day 4: Visiting Day

The day after New Year's is know for the day to visit other family or close friends. So today after waking up we went to my friend's Grandpa's Sister's house. It was nice, ate a huge lunch which was pretty delicious and the older people were interested in seeing me, a foreigner. Shortly after lunch my friend and I went to buy my return ticket (they ended up putting the wrong passport number on the ticket, and when we asked them about it they said don't worry about it, so much for tightening up security and preventing theft- although I can get away with almost anything cuz I'm a foreigner) After that we met with another friend and just walked around the downtown part of the city, I ate canned peaches, which who knew could taste so good after not eating them for over 7 months! Nothing extraordinary today.

Day 5: “And on the 3rd day of New Year my friend's family came to me...”

So I've mentioned before that Chinese New Year can be described as Christmas and a hundred 4th of July's. I think you can see the the correlation with 4th of July (fireworks), but maybe you don't quite see how it relates to Christmas. Well yes there is a lot of feasting and resting and visiting family, but like Christmas has 12 days (“on the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...”), there are 5 days of New Year. Not including New Year's Eve. As maybe you have seen in my journey, New Years eve is spent at home with immediate family, New Year's day with close family (brothers, sisters, grandparents, etc), and the following days are for visiting close friends and family. Today the family came to us. When you go to a home you bring a gift, which all the families did and it makes my transgression sting that much worse. My transgression being coming to my friend's home with no gift, but because I'm a foreigner and “Ting Bu Dong”-Can hear, but don't understand, my transgression is forgiven me.

Day 6: A visit to the Village

While I have for the most part enjoyed this experience, so far today has been my favorite. For two very simple reasons. One I got to ride in a car, knowing that no unknown child has sat where I am sitting with split pants, getting feces follicles on me. For 7 months I have not been able to have a relaxing ride in a personally owned car and today was glorious because it felt so home like. Reason 2, I got to see “China's countryside” as my friend put it for the first time and it brought back good memories. I'm sure the Nepalese mountains and the Mountains I went to today are completely different, but I couldn't help but feel the similarities. Plus there was so much family, it just reminded me of a good old fashion family get together.

Day 7: Fireworks, still?

Wow, before daylight hits the shades fireworks similar to that of actual New Year's Eve go off. Two hours of non-stop noise, from 6:30 am to 8:30 am. Thanks for the wake up call. Maybe it's in celebration of it being the last day of the holiday? I don't know, but either way it came as an annoying surprise. So this being my last full day here and for the first time no plans, I immediately suggest (as my treat) and trip to get coffee! A day full of english and coffee and talking, what fun! Although to my unending disappointment my offer was turned down. Instead we sat around the house and did nothing. A little boring on my end. But that night brought a small piece of redemption as we attempted to make banana muffins (Chinese don't usually bake), with no muffin model, guessing on the measurements and on my end wondering if we were even putting in the right ingredients (it was all in Chinese). Haha They came out not as sweet as usual, but tasted pretty good and were eaten up very quickly. Although now I know what to give my friend, muffin models and measurement cups!

Day 8: Train Fights, Take 2

Time to go home. Breakfast and lunch eaten, packed up and I'm shipped off to the Train Station. At least that's how it feel. But I am ready to fight, first a fight o get on the bus, I really can't portray how packed we were on the bus. But slowly after the fight mood has started it ends, as I arrive at the train Station somebody helps me with my bag and getting to the train and everything. No problems on the train...just ridiculously boring and a terrible sleep. My cute looks help me get away with the wrong ID number on my ticket (well they actually didn't ask...but I'm still cute). Ten and an half hours sleeping (or not really sleeping, but trying) on a hard seat with the lights continually on and I finally arrive...HOME! Oh did I miss you polluted city of mine.