Jinan again...

Day 17 – Well, I’ve managed four entries so far, so I’m averaging one every four days. If that’s not satisfying for any of you, then please feel free to complain. Or you can stew in frustration. That’s about all I can do for you right now. I might try to write more often if your complaint is entertainingly witty enough.

I’m back in Jinan at the moment. I discovered last week that in order to reclaim my passport, I had to do return to Jinan to visit the police station there and fill out some more paperwork. Great. I hopped on the train Monday afternoon at around 1430h and voila, I was in Jinan by… 4 AM.

The Chinese railway system only operates one train between Jinan and Hefei a day. While the cities are only about six hours apart – maybe the distance from Washington, DC, to Boston – the train is a sleeper train. It creeps along at a breakneck 40 miles per hour on average, while making frequent stops at what seems like every station between the two cities. In total, the trip takes 12 hours. Both times prior I’ve had a top bunk sleeper, which means that I’m on the third highest bunk in an open cabin that sleeps six. The top bunks have maybe three feet of room between the bunk and the car’s ceiling. I don’t fit. I have to wedge my body in strange ways to free myself from its confines. Luckily, this trip, I have the bottom bunk, which is far more spacious. I get a table and have a window next to me. My feet also dangle out into the aisle, so I have yet to decide whether this is an improvement or a retrograde.

Jinan was fun again. The first time I was training, so the celebrations were kept under control, for the most part. Most of the other teachers-in-training weren’t up for a rage or a shitshow and just went out socially. This was fine by me, but it didn’t make for many good stories. Only a few little chuckles.

This time I got in at 430 AM and was not surprised to have nobody waiting for me. Someone was rumored to be picking me up and escorting me to the hotel I’d stay at, but nobody was there. I walked around a bit and got harassed by taxi drivers looking for business. At first I thought that one had been sent to pick me up, but I quickly realized he was just soliciting. I was on my way to check into the hotel next to the train station, a very nice marble-floored joint with a spacious chandelier-decorated lobby, when Tom Honeycutt, the deputy regional director, showed up to save me. Or to save my wallet from the pounding it would have taken at this palace. We considered hitting up the bars, but decided that at 5 AM, it would be a little too late, and that KTV wasn’t really an option (thankfully).

I got to the hotel, the Super 8, and was about to check in when… Tom forgot his passport, so we couldn’t check in yet. We hopped back in a cab and swung by his apartment to grab the documents, then dropped by the hotel again. When we showed up, two other youngish Chinese guys were trying to check in. One was a little bruised, as if he’d been in a fight, and was clearly tripping hard on heavy drugs. His eyes were swollen and red and his face was flushed. The hotel staff quarantined me in the lobby while they took the elevator up, then let me take the elevator up alone, safely. Odd. And sketch. Oh well. The room was nice. I got internet. But I immediately passed out.

I woke around 11 and cleaned up, then headed over to Aston 1, where I’d meet Megan, my Chinese contact who’s helping me acquire my residency permit (the document I came to submit for). I grabbed some lunch with her assistant, Lucy, and then hung around while some other foreign teachers showed up, who were on similar missions as I. Blah blah blah… I got the documents sorted out and I get my passport next week. Great.

Fortunately, I was able to complete all these shenanigans in less than a day, so I am Hefei-bound this evening at 0017 on the sleeper. Right now it’s about 6 PM and I’m chillin’ in the Jinan Station Hotel’s lobby, the marble-floored place, where they have a bartendress who is treating me very well and keeping my thirst quenched with Tsingtao. I’ll be playing Warcraft (an old hobby I’ve picked up again in my free time), reading this week’s Economist, and studying Chinese until midnight. Probably just playing Warcraft.

That’s all for now, folks. 再见!