A Frustrating Afternoon

This afternoon was a bit frustrating and I think it will help for me to tell you about it: There are a lot of people in China, if you did not know this. The people seem to multiply when rush hour hits! Stan and I decided to go down town to put more money on our bus cards. We got there just fine; it was about 3:30 when we left. P.S. It’s freezing outside! Literally; 1 degree Celsius. We got to the ticket booth and motion to the lady behind the glass that we wanted to put X amount of money on the card and showed her the card. Confusion set in on her face and I knew this was not going to be good. Normally if we make those gestures, people can understand what we want. Not this time, buddy. The woman scanned my card and cashed it out. Handed us cash and kept the card. No, no, no. That’s not what we want. Thankfully, there was a man standing next to us who could speak English relatively well. He helped us, but said that the lady was saying, “You can not put money on card uh…here.” We say, “Ok, thank you. Where can we put money on it?” He just keeps saying, “Uh…can’t put money on card here.” *shrug* UHG! He was very helpful though. We would have stood there and handed her the money all day long! haha

So, I decide I would like to eat some Muslim noodles…sooooo yummy and warm on a cold day like today. So we wait for our bus and here it comes! Yay! Wuhu! Rejoicing! Oh wait, it is completely full. Sadness. Despair. Worry. We look over and people are lining up to get on the bus, so we follow in hopes we will get on too! We push our way on the bus…literally. I was pushed on because someone else was trying to take my spot on the bus. We squeezed our way on and were smashed in by 3 more people who barely fit. I wouldn’t have gotten on that bus if I could do it over! I am standing there on the bus, Stan in front of me and we go for a couple blocks and come to another bus stop. One person gets off the bus. One. I look to the front door and they just keep coming! Not enough people got off to compensate for the many more getting on. I can literally not move and more people are getting on the bus! Stan is getting shoved back into me and I am being squished between him and this man behind me. My feet left the ground for a millisecond. No lie. I am not claustrophobic, but I wanted nothing more than to be off the bus. I was restraining myself from a break down! Ever stop more people got on and not as many people got off. I don’t understand how it happened and I don’t really understand how we got off, but I’m glad we did!

We were on our way to meet Kyle and Rebecca for some food and I had to stop and use the bathroom, you know the squaty’s. (By the way, I am learning squaty’s are way harder to use when you have a lot of layers on.) So in the midst of the squaty visit, I managed to drop my chapstick in the squaty. Did I go in after it? No I did not. Thankfully I brought many extras. It all ended well with a hot bowl of Muslim noodles. Mmm Mmm Good! Only better than Campbell’s. ☺ Thanks for reading and don’t forget to think about me! I love you all!