Sunday

So yesterday after the interview (which went well, by the way) I walked up to the subway station.  I was going to get on the subway to the Shanghai South Train Station, where the I would catch the bus back to Hangzhou. 

It was already 4pm, so I thought I better eat now, because once I get to the bus station, I'll catch the next bus and won't get a chance. 

So I ate at the Bruce Lee restaurant I had found earlier.  Wasn't as good as the street food, and way more expensive.

Bought my ticket and got on the 1 train to the train station.  I didn't notice the time, so it got to the station quicker than I expected, and it was the end of the line, so I got off.  Ah, the wonders of modern efficient mass transit.

So here I am at the train station, and I know the bus station is right next to it.  So I walk around..... walk around... where is the bus station?  I look for the giant neon phalluses I had seen on the plaza from the night before; they must be around here somewhere.  I ask a guy on the plaza, he says "I don't know, you should ask someone."  So I go back underground, where there are maps, and I can't find the bus station on the map!  I go to the north plaza, wind up in the eyeglass market, dragging my carry-on behind me, lugging it up stairs... I ask three people, and they all tell me I should go ask someone. 

After what seems like an hour of walking around, I finally said Screw It!  It's a train station, I'll take a train.  Who cares how long it takes.  I'm here at the train station, I'll take a train back to Hangzhou.  The train station is big hall, huge reader board, dozens of windows, dozens of people at each window.... except for one window, which has no one waiting.  The English-speaking window.  Sweet. 

So I ask for a ticket to Hangzhou for tonight, and BAM she prints one out, it's 60 kuai.  I ask where to go, and she says go out and to the left, and that's all I understand.  She's speaking English, but she's not looking at me, she's speaking into a mic that faces away from me.  All I see is her hand flying up and to the left.  I look at the ticket, and it says Shanghai South. 

So I go out onto the plaza and look next door for the entrance to the Shanghai South trains. Looking, looking... I ask someone, she says I should go ask someone.  I ask a bony security guard, he points me down into the metro station, and gestures the number one.  So I go underground and look for platform 1.  Where the hell is platform 1?  I see platforms 3 and 4, exits 1-6, and subway line 1.  Obviously it's not the subway.

I'm lost, holding my ticket out in front of me and reading it so that I look lost.  One guy looks over my shoulder and says, "This is not Shanghai South!" and I don't understand the rest.  I get it, I should go to Shanghai South.  Where the hell is it? 

So I think, I'll just go to the trains back up top.  So back up top I go, and try to enter the train entrance, and the ticket checker says I can't go in, that I need to go to Shanghai South, go over there and take number one.  I try to follow where she points, and a guy who wants to help me with my luggage (no thanks) tells me I have to go to Shanghai South! Shanghai South!  There's still time!  How annoying, I try to shake him, but he follows me for a while. 

Finally I go back to the English speaking ticket window to ask her where in the heck I was supposed to go, which was what I should have done in the first place. 

In line now behind some confused French tourists, who are being assisted in English by a Scandinavian back-packer.  I wait and wait and wait, and finally Scandinavian back-packer is done at the window and the French tourists seem happy, so as the Scandinavian back-packer goes to leave, I show him my ticket and ask him in English where the hell I am supposed to go. 

You need to get on the subway and take the one train down to Shanghai South Railway Station, it's about 20 minute ride.

Oh. 

All this time, I've been at the wrong train station.  And many Chinese people have been trying to tell me this.  But stupid me, I don't get it until a blond dude tells me.  What's wrong with me? 

I go down to the subway and buy my ticket with coins, which is an ordeal, get on the train, which is a breeze, and stumble out at Shanghai South Train Station.  It's dark now, and I finally see the giant neon phalluses I had seen the night before.  I go up to the train station entrance, and everything is right.  The waiting room I walk into happens to be the one for my train, so I finally text my roommate that I'm on my way back. 

The train was bright and spacious.  An English speaking couple sat facing me, he was German, she was Chinese, and unfortunately I had to hear their whole conversation.  The train got up to 170 kph, which is pretty fast.... not as fast as in France... but fast.  When I got to steamy Hangzhou, I was turned down by a couple cabbies as I spoke to them through the window; they were on their break, they didn't understand me.... what ever.  It occurred to me that that I was trying to get a cab the Mexican way; negotiate first through the window.  So finally I hailed a cab, GOT IN THE BACK and told him Zhejiang Gongye Daxue, Hou Men.  And we were on our way.  I don't know if I got the tones right, but since my junk was sitting in the back seat, he made the effort to understand. 

I stopped on stir-fry street for three pot-stickers before returning to my dorm room.