Phase Two Begins

I am so sorry for the lapse in entries. The last few weeks of my semester consisted largely of speaking English, wasting time and going out to eat non-Chinese food. I had an interesting time browsing a Chinese bookstore and made pancakes in the dorm with two of my friends. Nothing seemed particularly noteworthy.

Yesterday we had our graduation ceremony, officially ended the language pledge, tested out our roommates’ English abilities and said our goodbyes. I spent the large part of the afternoon lying around with two of my friends singing cheesy songs and wasting time, then set off to take a train to Shanghai, where about half of the people in our program were staying in two hotel rooms to have one last night out. Well, it’s a good thing I gave myself plenty of time to get to the train station, because I first found myself not at the East Train Station but the East Bus Station. I calmly marched myself to the front of the line for cabs, and in my most desperate sounding Chinese pleaded with the attendant to let me get a cab, because I needed to catch my train. At the train station I unloaded my bags onto the X-ray machine, presented my ticket and was told, to my dismay, that I wanted not the East station but the South one. You can’t make this shit up. I was embarrassed that I was still having this kind of trouble after three months. Fighting back tears of frustration, I loaded up my bags again and set about trying to get another cab. I decided if I couldn’t make the train, I’d go back to the school, spend a last night with a few friends still around, sleep in a friend’s room as I no longer had my key, get to Shanghai in the morning. As it is I made the train with time to spare, though in the end I found myself falling asleep in a club at two in the morning (I only slept about four hours on Friday), and dragged myself back to the hotel to sleep. I am now killing time in Shanghai with a few friends, trying to figure out a plan for the week (relaxing around here, possibly with a side trip to Suzhou or Nanjing), and waiting for Sunday when my mom and sister arrive.