Train station
Knowing that the train station ticket office is open 24 hours a day, I figured 9pm was a good time to go and check out tickets to Xi'an - avoiding the heat and crowds of the daytime. I certainly didn't avoid either but there were considerably less of both this time around (you might remember the fright of a time I had buying tickets for my first weekend excursion to Hangzhou...)
I seem to be getting out of my comfort zone more and more as my time in Shanghai comes to a close. This is good, of course, preparing me for the completely alien task of teaching a language to 45 little ones in a matter of weeks!!! Anyhow, being unemployed these past six weeks has made it very easy for me to acclimate myself to the Yuan. In fact, this evening, when I had to shell out 312 kuai for my hard-sleeper 20 hr ticket to Xi'an, I felt very nervous about such a large sum of money (a little more than $36 USD) and asked the cashier to repeat the time, date and city to me three times before leaving her booth. I think it will be unbelievably easy for me to live well under my means while in Wuhan, as there will be a lot less opportunities to spend loads of cash on nothing simply because you happen to be out with others who are still thinking of 100 kuai as 10 euros or a little more than $12 USD.
I know that China and Seattle are very different places, but I'm already learning the important lesson of how easy it is to live simply. Those of you who know me (have lived with me or seen my pack-rate tendencies) know that this is often a hard lesson for me to swallow. Of course, I'm proud of the fact that I've been in Shanghai - one of the most glamorous cities in the world - for six weeks now with only two pairs of shoes. I've mentioned this before, but as my feet heal and become hard and dirty looking even when newly-washed, I think how different this six weeks has been from any other time in my life.
So, Xi'an is the next adventure and I'll be "off the grid" as it were, while I'm there. The hostel I'll be staying in apparently makes up for the lack of amenities with added character - the proprietor took the English name Jim Beam and, of course, I plan to find out why. I'll try to post a rough itinerary before I leave this Saturday, but once I get to Wuhan, I'll have plenty of time to play catch-up before the chaos of school sets in. I suppose by the time I get truly comfortable in China, it will be time to go home?
