The morning I had to go for the train, I did everything I could, not to go on it. The whole idea of having to stand/ sit on my bag for 27 hours wasn't every appealing. I checked planes and prices but I couldn't justify the price to myself so I decided to bite the bullet and head to the train station.
I arrived to the train station and it was mad busy. I had to make a note to myself, never travel during Chinese new year in china again. I waited patiently for my train time making sure I was there in time for the train and I wasn't going to miss this one. I queued with the other Chinese as much as they quened. Cause if your not fast enough and there is any gap they tend to hop into your spot. But I had no where to go. I had a ticket that said I was to go to carriage, 3, that's it, nothing else and when I got to carriage 3, well it was full there was barely any space for me to get on, especially with this huge back pack on my back. I showed my ticket to the guy who was letting people on the train. He nodded his head and indicated for me to get on the train but there were people hanging out of the carriage already from being to packed. So I stepped up and shoved, got pushed inside and stood in the little space between other people standing in the area where the two carriages meet. I was standing there and I was ready to cry.
I just thought I was going to had to do this for the next 24 hours, that's all I could think. I was thinking in the back of my head, I should just push my way out and say I can't do this, xi'an wasn't so bad I could stay there for 2 weeks. But the train doors closed and it was moving off. I tried to find a spot to put my bag down, which I kind a found and I leaned against it. And after awhile people seemed to move a little further in the train carriages and I was able to put my bag down and sit on it. I didn't know how long that would last and I was feeling quite tried so I put my head in my hand and tried to sleep. Journeys always go faster when you sleep.
I don't know how long I was like that, it could have been 2 mins to 2 hours, but I noticed someone stop near me and I sensed I was being talked about and this guy was looking at me. He then indicates for me to follow him. I look after him but I wasn't sure if I should or not, I didn't want to lose what little spot I had. The guy next to me says go and waves his arm after the guy, saying in broken English, go, have seat!
I look at him, not believing my luck and he tells me to go. So I get my bag on my back and grab my small bag and slowly start after my knight in shining armor. He sees me struggling though the crowd of people as the are everywhere and he grabs my small bag and carries it for me. We walk though a full carriage and half way through the next one and arrive to his seat. My bag is put away underneath the seat and I'm told to sit down. I felt a bit like a spare wheel but everyone was just smiling at me. So I sat there with all these people around me, there were other people standing in the carriage and when someone got up to go to the toilet or to get hot water for food or drink, they would sit down for those few minutes while the seat was vacant. I was wondering how they were going to do that all night, but as the day worn on and came closer to the evening we came to a city where everyone seemed to pile out and the carriages were half full. I got moved across to another empty seat, where I was able to kinda sleep hunched over and resting on a table. The next day I eventually got talking to a couple of guys who knew some English. I think they didn't talk to me before as they weren't to confident. But I got told about the uighur people who live around urumqi. They come originally from the farther west and are Muslim. They also have their own language different to Chinese, I noticed it in the carriage, as I was watching the different people there. It didn't sound like Chinese
I knew I was getting farther away when I saw camels grazing in the fields as the train went by and I was getting quite excited to see where I was going.
I arrive and coming out the station, I was looking around to see if I could see xiao ai, I really hoped she was there as I didn't have any backup plan. I got touched on the arm by this guy who had a boy with him and waved his arm telling me to follow him. I didn't know if he was with xiao ai or just some random guy and then xiao came running out of the crowd and threw her arms around me. It was good to see her. It turned out that, that was her father and her brother, who actually was her first cousin. I really found out in that week with xiao that, brother, sister, auntie, uncle, in our language is not the same in theirs. All cousins are brothers and sisters and anyone older than them is really know as uncle or auntie. By the end of it, I was getting really confused. There is no line of where family starts or ends. Well I guess cause most of the people I met were all in single children families.
When I arrived to urumqi, it was already 4 in the afternoon, same time as in beijing. Even though urumqi in a normal country would be at least 2 time zones less than beijing, the Chinese prefer to ignore that and the whole country is on the same time. So we had lunch when I arrived, I had a lovely hot shower and fell asleep quite easily around the 7pm mark, especially since I didn't sleep much on the train and I was up late the night before that talking away to Shannon.
I got woken up to have dinner, and I got up and sat with the rest of the family around the table. Xiao was there with her mom and dad and her brother and her grandmother even showed up and I got introduced. I was really sleepy and was really surprised that I had been woken up. I tried eating was giving to me, but I was so disoriented I wasn't sure what I was doing. And then they thought I didn't like their food cause I wasn't eating much of it, but that had nothing to do with it. I just wanted to be back asleep. And then I found out that it was 11pm, actually nearly midnight and I was really surprised it was so late and not surprised I couldn't eat. So I made my way back to bed and slept soundly all the way through to morning.
The next morning, We head over to her grandmothers house for breakfast. They are really nice. Her grandfather plays the ar who, the same instrument, I tried to play at the temple of heaven, but he does a much better job. He plays along with this tape he has of the beijing opera that he puts on. It was really cool and xiao's grandmother doesn't want to be left out, so she puts on this music that she dances along to with a fan. Kung fu dancing or something like that. It was really cool also. She was even telling me, through xiao of course, that she had a dream about me before xiao ever told her that she had a friend coming to stay. She dreamt about meeting me. I was amazing and she was totally serious and I really believe her.
Afterwards we head off and head into town, where we meet, huang xiao her boyfriend and introduces me to a woman as her auntie, but I later find out that its actually huang xiao's stepmother. She is quite young, just slightly older than me, and married her boyfriend's dad who is in his late 40'S. I think. I was wondering how xiao had an auntie who was as young like that.
Well we ended wandering around a few shops, xiao was looking for new clothes for the new year but only ended up finding a scarf and after wards was brought to the international bazaar. In the Muslim quarters. It was cold enough for them to have ice sculptures out in the court yard. I don't think I have ever been anywhere, where it was cold enough for that before. It was interesting to see and I had a bracelet made from some stones there. Which actually turned out to be quite nice.
There we meet a friend of xiao's called tin tin, who comes back with us to xiao's house, which turned out to be in the dark. Some how the electricity was gone for their whole apartment block. Luckily her grandmothers was just up the road, so we called up there, and they got ready to go out, doing up their hair and makeup. I don't know what that is anymore. I hadn't done it in so long. Make up? Straighten hair? What is that?
Xiaos dad bring us in to town and we head to a nightclub for the night, where we ended up meeting her boyfriend and “auntie”. I end up on coke all night, now that's the coca cola variety, as everyone else was on beer and they didn't seem to do vodka by the glass, just by the bottle. Now I know I could have drank it. Ha ha but I decided to same money and brain cells.
It was a great night, I got pushed up on to the dance floor at one stage to dance and huang xiao lived up to his nickname of Michael Jackson and danced the night away, with Michael Jackson moves. It was also funny to see guys dancing together and not really in a sexual way. It was almost like that they we're more comfortable dancing with other guys than with females.
After the club, they decided to head to KTV. I had no idea what it was and since it was like 3 in the morning at the stage, it could have been anything.
But it actually meant karaoke. So we ended up at a spot where you rent a whole room and you get to sing along to karaoke. It was really funny. I wasn't to sure about it but in the end I got into the whole thing and sung along really badly to different songs that I found. I even found waterfalls by TLC. I loved that song in school for some reason and hadn't heard it in ages. It was getting really late at this stage and I was hoping that we would be leaving soon to get back to xiao's house but they put on the new bond movie to watch, and fell asleep. I ended up being the only one awake watching bond. Well the only reason I was still awake was because it was a movie I wanted to watch and hadn't had the chance to yet. So by the time it finished I was ready for bed. I tried sleeping on the couch with the rest of them, but I just couldn't get comfy. Eventually we head back to her home after saying goodbye to everyone, for bed where I finally fall into a deep sleep and wake up late in the afternoon.
The rest of the time in urumqi, was spent hanging out with xiao. We played out in the snow. Snow fight and throwing a sand ball, similar to piggy in the middle but instead of throwing past the person in the middle you had to hit them to get them out. It was fun. The best food of the whole week was the sweet dumplings that they gave me. It was like rice dough and chewy with sweet filling, I think made of peanuts.
I even went and bought some thermals, they were fellas ones but I didn't care as it was at least below minus 10 there and I was quite cold every time we went out. In the evenings, xiao showed me how to play Chinese poker, which is very different to our kind and if you lost you had to be punished. So they other person had say what they had to do almost like a dare. I had to dance like Michael Jackson at one stage.
Xiao's mom whats her to be a scholar so she had learned a lot of things at school. She had done some dancing so she showed me some Chinese dancing. It was really good and beautiful. She wanted me to show her some Irish dancing, and I don't remember any. Just the basic one two three. So I did that and embellished it a bit, throwing my feet around and it seemed to worked. She didn't know any better.
And I also got another dose of the runs a couple of days before I was due to leave, which wasn't good. As I was to go on a 48 hour train ride and I didn't want to be staying in the toilet all that time. I was also wondering how I had gotten twice in a space of a week and never got it in southeast asia. I would have thought I would have gotten there. But I was reading my anti malaria tablets and not only were they for malaria they were also anti diarrhea. So needless to say I went back on them pretty quick.
When it came to Chinese new year, I got sent away.
Xiao and her mom had been fighting ever since I got there. Just normal parent child things. I couldn't understand any of it so it was fine for me. But stuff like locking the door to her room and her mom giving out that it was locked.
Xiao said she wanted my new year to be fun so she said that I was to go to her boyfriends house for new years. I got picked up by huang and his step mom and they brought me to huangs grand mothers house. Where I meet his dad and grand mother and his uncles family. I tried some rice wine there, that was 52%. and man was it strong. I was thinking it was the strongest one I had tried yet.
But huang and his dad, were toasting shots to each other and drinking quite a lot of it. I only had a few. I got shown some of the bangers that they let off and man were they loud. They even made the alarms of the cars near by go beeping.
Surprisingly enough for me the best part of the dinner was the fish. I have to say I was happy that I was eating fish now. Other wise I would have missed out. We headed back to his dads house and started to watch a movie but huang fall asleep at the beginning of it. I think he had drunken a bit too much. It was a scary movie and I don't watch scary movies never mind on my own, so I swapped it for a different one.
And I watched that till I heard all this loud noises and bangs going on outside. There were fireworks going everywhere. The sky was alight with them all.
I really wanted to go down and see them but huang was still asleep. I was starting to put my coat as I was going to go with out him when he came out of his room after being woken up from all the noise. He got his fireworks and we headed downstairs. It was crazy. People on the street letting off small and big ones alike. I have never seen anything like it and I doubt I will again. But it looked like it wasn't our night as a few of huangs fireworks didn't go off, it was quite funny. And it was freezen out. I now know why the men smoke as it was easier for them to light their fireworks with their cigarettes then to fumble with a lighter in the cold every time they wanted to light one. I even braved the cold longer and watched everyone else from the apartments near by letting off their fireworks.
It was an amazing experience.
The next day was spent saying goodbye to everyone and buying food for the train journey. So I had my own noodles instead of buying them off the food cart. It was cheaper. Xiao and her dad dropped me at the train station and we had to say good to each other outside the doors as only passengers were allowed in the station. I keep having to say good bye to the wonderful people I meet. And crying every time.
