Well, now that I've covered much of my time in Beijing, it's time to wrap up this catch-up series...
Last Sunday, the day after the marathon, I still had legs! Which was a good thing, as I needed them to get to church and back and start packing. I didn't leave myself much time to say goodbyes to people, but I like that sometimes - goodbyes can be draining. Besides, I'll be back in Beijing for a couple days in June before I leave. So I got home from church and frantically packed my bags. I left my large suitcase there for Joel to deal with, and I gave Ben a duffel bag with clothes in it to bring to Shanghai for me, and then all I had was my small suitcase, an IKEA bag stuffed with my air mattress, comforter, and pillows, and my backpack. Ben and I headed for the Beijing South Station, and we caught our respective bullet trains south, which left within 5 minutes of each other.
I arrived in Nanjing around 8:30, met Chandler and went back to his apartment. We stayed up talking until around 2 am, even though I should have been exhausted from walking around and dragging luggage a day after finishing a marathon. I woke up around 7:30, though, and I wasn't terribly tired. We got breakfast and then headed to school. Chen Laoshi and Dong Laoshi and Hong Xia were in the office, so we talked to them for a while, which was nice. Chen Laoshi is one of the funniest men alive; he's obsessed with Nanjing history and the Utah Jazz and BYU, and he's always great to talk to.
After that, we got lunch with Xin Qiang (who had changed his name to Vincent!), Maryia, Jason, and two of Xin Qiang's friends. Chandler had called Xin Qiang that morning and arranged for lunch, saying 中午见, but Xin Qiang heard 周五见 and thought we were having lunch at 11 on Friday! But we ran into him randomly anyway. Miracles never cease.
After that, I headed back and went to the train station to catch my train to Suzhou. It's a very short trip on the bullet train from Nanjing to Suzhou, but it was pleasant. The weather on Monday and Tuesday was fantastic - not hot, light breeze, sunny. I took a taxi to Jonathan's office and went up to grab his apartment keys from him, dropped my stuff off, showered, and then Jonathan, Sisi, some other YSA's in the branch and I went out to an Italian place for dinner and then to a member's house for games. He manufactures board games, so he knows most games intimately and owns plenty of them. Jonathan, a guy named Ben, and I played a game called Power Grid, kind of like Ticket to Ride except you're building networks of power plants and lines. I won - Jonathan was put out, but there was no helping it. They had a large living room with a baby grand piano in it (that's where they hold church in Suzhou), so I played some Beethoven and Rhapsody in Blue on their piano afterwards. It was a pretty terrible piano, but at least it was mostly in tune.
The next day, I went to 虎丘 in the morning, probably the most famous sight in Suzhou. It's an old hill with all kinds of ancient buildings and historical sites on it, including tall brick pagoda over 1000 years old. It leans to one side, so it's off limits to climb. I was really tired after that, so I headed back to Jonathan's to take a nap. Then Zach, Jonathan, Sisi, Ben (new guy I met in Suzhou, not Ben Hansen) and I had lunch at a Mexican place, which was great. After that, I had another nap (soooo tired...) and then caught my train to Shanghai.
I got to Shanghai around 5 and then took the subway to Ben and Seth's stop. Once there, I borrowed someone's phone to call them (my sim card broke Sunday morning, so I had been without a phone for two days - I borrowed phones 6 or 7 times in total); Seth didn't answer, but Ben did. However, he was still at work. He tried to get a hold of Seth, but Seth continued not to answer (turns out his phone was broken as well). So I hung around the subway station and got dinner and waited for Ben, who showed up an hour and a half later. I made myself at home at their place and started work on Wednesday!
And thus ends the story of the Sojourn to Shanghai.
Last Sunday, the day after the marathon, I still had legs! Which was a good thing, as I needed them to get to church and back and start packing. I didn't leave myself much time to say goodbyes to people, but I like that sometimes - goodbyes can be draining. Besides, I'll be back in Beijing for a couple days in June before I leave. So I got home from church and frantically packed my bags. I left my large suitcase there for Joel to deal with, and I gave Ben a duffel bag with clothes in it to bring to Shanghai for me, and then all I had was my small suitcase, an IKEA bag stuffed with my air mattress, comforter, and pillows, and my backpack. Ben and I headed for the Beijing South Station, and we caught our respective bullet trains south, which left within 5 minutes of each other.
I arrived in Nanjing around 8:30, met Chandler and went back to his apartment. We stayed up talking until around 2 am, even though I should have been exhausted from walking around and dragging luggage a day after finishing a marathon. I woke up around 7:30, though, and I wasn't terribly tired. We got breakfast and then headed to school. Chen Laoshi and Dong Laoshi and Hong Xia were in the office, so we talked to them for a while, which was nice. Chen Laoshi is one of the funniest men alive; he's obsessed with Nanjing history and the Utah Jazz and BYU, and he's always great to talk to.
After that, we got lunch with Xin Qiang (who had changed his name to Vincent!), Maryia, Jason, and two of Xin Qiang's friends. Chandler had called Xin Qiang that morning and arranged for lunch, saying 中午见, but Xin Qiang heard 周五见 and thought we were having lunch at 11 on Friday! But we ran into him randomly anyway. Miracles never cease.
After that, I headed back and went to the train station to catch my train to Suzhou. It's a very short trip on the bullet train from Nanjing to Suzhou, but it was pleasant. The weather on Monday and Tuesday was fantastic - not hot, light breeze, sunny. I took a taxi to Jonathan's office and went up to grab his apartment keys from him, dropped my stuff off, showered, and then Jonathan, Sisi, some other YSA's in the branch and I went out to an Italian place for dinner and then to a member's house for games. He manufactures board games, so he knows most games intimately and owns plenty of them. Jonathan, a guy named Ben, and I played a game called Power Grid, kind of like Ticket to Ride except you're building networks of power plants and lines. I won - Jonathan was put out, but there was no helping it. They had a large living room with a baby grand piano in it (that's where they hold church in Suzhou), so I played some Beethoven and Rhapsody in Blue on their piano afterwards. It was a pretty terrible piano, but at least it was mostly in tune.
The next day, I went to 虎丘 in the morning, probably the most famous sight in Suzhou. It's an old hill with all kinds of ancient buildings and historical sites on it, including tall brick pagoda over 1000 years old. It leans to one side, so it's off limits to climb. I was really tired after that, so I headed back to Jonathan's to take a nap. Then Zach, Jonathan, Sisi, Ben (new guy I met in Suzhou, not Ben Hansen) and I had lunch at a Mexican place, which was great. After that, I had another nap (soooo tired...) and then caught my train to Shanghai.
I got to Shanghai around 5 and then took the subway to Ben and Seth's stop. Once there, I borrowed someone's phone to call them (my sim card broke Sunday morning, so I had been without a phone for two days - I borrowed phones 6 or 7 times in total); Seth didn't answer, but Ben did. However, he was still at work. He tried to get a hold of Seth, but Seth continued not to answer (turns out his phone was broken as well). So I hung around the subway station and got dinner and waited for Ben, who showed up an hour and a half later. I made myself at home at their place and started work on Wednesday!
And thus ends the story of the Sojourn to Shanghai.
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