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October 06, 2005
Expectations & reality
Eating a fruit jelly today*, I found a maraschino cherry. I bit down and inside was a pit. A pit! Everyone knows maraschino cherries are pitted and utterly without resemblance to the fruit that grows from the pink-blossomed trees! But it’s a great illustration of my life in Zhenjiang.
My expectations are China’s plaything. I never know whether there will be a pit in the maraschino cherry. I am constantly running across shapes that look familiar – because they’re similar to something from home, or to something I’ve seen in China before – but which hold surprises. China keeps me on my toes.
Naomi and went to our favorite Korean restaurant at the beginning of the year, walked in, sat down, opened the menu – only to discover it was now a goose hotpot place**. A little earlier we’d tried the hole-in-the-wall Korean joint outside our university’s gate…to find it in the process of being demolished.
At this time last year we were sweating our way around Nan Shan (South Hill, one of the city’s parks). This year I was shivering my way around Nanjing, jacketless, because who knew it’d be so cold in early October? This isn’t Seattle, it’s southern China!
To get to Nanjing last Sunday, we got tickets for what I call the “devil train”: I think it’s 5055; it leaves around 7:30 am. A few of the experiences Naomi and I have had on this train are indescribable. Once, the 5055 pulled into the Zhenjiang station an hour late; it was already stuffed with people and I didn’t think there was any way we’d make it on. But the crowd was determined; elbows and arms and loud voices were employed; we were buoyed up the stairs onto the train along with the rest of the people-sea. Once squished on (we had standing tickets), firmly pressed in on all sides, we discovered to our utter horror and sardonic amusement that the food and toy-cart pushers stop for no crowd. That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, these determined train employees are not fazed by the familiar sight of people stacked on top of each other; they will roll up and down the train, calling their wares, offering beer, chicken feet, ramen noodles, magazines, and flashing tops which play an off-key Happy Birthday to their dear passengers. It was one of the longer hours of my life.
Oh, the memories. When I found out we were scheduled for the “devil train” this past week, I resigned myself to a miserable time. It was the second day of National Holiday and the whole country would be traveling. I was not looking forward to it, to say the least.
But when we got on the train and found our seats (seats!), I was amazed to see only a few people standing in the aisles. The train left Zhenjiang on time and the ride was fairly comfortable – at least, uneventful. Pit or no pit? It’s impossible to guess.
*"Jelly" in the British sense=jello
**Mongolian hotpot, or chafing dish=a pot of broth at your table kept boiling by a flame underneath, in which you cook a variety of ingredients chosen from the menu. At the goose hotpot place, you order a half or whole goose to go in the pot to start with.
| By huzzlecoo | 09:29 PM
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Comments
May each day you wake in China be that of "The Good Train"...
Posted by: Matt at October 7, 2005 06:59 AM
