This week is Golden Week and it’s a week long Chinese holiday. No work for me! (Well I actually still need to
finish reports that are due the day after we get back, but let’s not talk about
that). Since my visa was not processed in time for me to get tickets out of
China, Melissa and decided we would take a short trip to Suzhou, a smaller city
that is only a 30 minutes away by speed train. We also decided that since we
were not going somewhere exotic like Vietnam, Thailand, Instabul, or Bali
(these are all places my co-workers are spending the week), we would splurge on
a nice hotel. Sadly, Melissa got sick and couldn’t go. I decided to take the
journey solo and I’m really glad I did.
It would have been so fun with another person, but it was
really good to have something that forced me out of my comfort zone. I needed this
trip to remind myself that I’m self-sufficient and I can go places and do
things and have fun by myself. I get a
little too comfortable sometimes in my apartment and simple routine. China can be a little intimidating! I feel like I haven't been out and seen much yet and I'm working on changing that. It was soooo hot when I first got here and then I was so busy adjusting to a new job and everything and now I've been here two months and I still don't really know what is in my neighborhood. I remind myself that I'm spending at least two years here so there is time, but I want to do and see more and sometimes that means taking initiative and doing it on my own.
So I took off Saturday morning to catch the speed train to
Suzhou. The train station is huge and a little confusing at first. I spent a lot of time walking back and forth trying to figure out where I needed to go. I did eventually figure it out and made it my first class train car. I knew it was a short train ride, but I didn't realize how short. When they called "Suzhou Station" over the speakers I panicked a little and wondered if that was really my stop or if there were multiple stations in Suzhou. I did decide to get off there.
I had my hotel written in Chinese and my original plan was to go to the hotel and then figure out places to go from there. Since I was staying at a nicer hotel I knew they could tell me what places I should visit and help me get taxi's. However, I couldn't check in til 2pm and it was 12 and when I got out of the train station it was raining and muggy and solo exploring and catching taxi's in a city I'd never been to suddenly became way less appealing. A guy from a Chinese tours company approached me and showed me their little tour pamphlet. It was like 15 dollars for a 4 hour tour and that including admission to the places and the bus ride. It sounded a lot easier then figuring it out on my own plus I figured it would make for a good cultural experience and some laughs as I was the only non-Chinese person on the bus. I think the red hat was what really sold me.
So the tour begun and I don't know where we went. We took a boat through some canals and visited a silk museum and some other places. The pictures didn't really turn out. It was pretty cloudy and muggy out.
It was a pretty ridiculous couple of hours. I was laughing to myself most of the time. A couple of older South African guys joined the tour later and it was nice having a couple English speaking buddies (Although they spoke mostly Afrikaans to each other). I was really glad I did it, because it did take up the whole afternoon and it was fun but I had hit my max for "cultural experiences" for the day so I was looking forward to finding my hotel.
I got a taxi to my hotel using my paper with the hotel written on it. Luckily, I also had the hotel number on the paper cause he didn't quite know where it was and he called the hotel. I guess I was staying on the opposite side of town from everything, but it worked out. The hotel we randomly selected was so nice! I'm not sure I've ever stayed somewhere so nice. I loved it.
That evening I made plans to meet up with my friend Alyssa's family who lives in Suzhou.Meeting up with the Jones met taking the subway across town.
I love the subway in Shanghai. I feel pretty comfortable using it so I was fairly
certain I could figure it out in Suzhou. Plus Suzhou only has one line while
Shanghai has 11. I made the plans early
in the day over text messages so I didn’t know where my hotel was and where the
metro was, but I hoping there would be one close or the hotel people could help
me get a taxi to a near by station. I paid extra attention in the taxi on the
way to the hotel and I saw a metro station and it was only a couple blocks from
my hotel. I went, got checked in to my AMAZING hotel, and then made my journey
to meet the Jones family. I looked at a map later that night and realized that I
had been all over the city that day and I didn’t get lost or even feel lost
ever and it felt good.
I met Alyssa aunt and cousins for dinner and then coffee and
it was so good. I had briefly met them at Alyssa’s wedding back in June. They
have been in Suzhou for three years. Alyssa’s uncle is the pastor of an international
church there. I'm so glad it worked out to meet up with them!
After dinner I went back the hotel and enjoyed the fancy
room. I ordered room service as a midnight snack. There were a few American TV
stations, one was showing a marathon of Jimmy Falcon show so I watched that. I felt like I was in America for
the night.
The next morning I decided I would check out one of the
gardens since I had time before I needed to catch my train. I also wanted to go
somewhere pretty since it was actually sunny out. I went to Humble Administrator Garden since it was close to the Train Station and it was so beautiful. Man, I have
missed nature. Being surrounded by trees and flowers was satisfying for my
soul. There were so many hidden areas to
explore and little caves and big rocks to climb up on. I loved it here.
After spending a couple hours here I headed to the train
station and went back to Shanghai. Such a fun trip!
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