Awkward Acquaintances

Today was my first experience on the train in China. I took a twelve hour overnight train to Wuxi from Beijing. I was quite nervous at first maybe because my wallet was stolen here and I heard theft was bad on the train. Thankfully it turned out to be a fine night, my stuff was left alone, and I had a decent sleep. I took the hard sleeper (its much cheaper) which means there are six beds to one room (three stacked on each side) and no door for privacy. I was in the middle bed at eye contact level for anyone who walked by. I was the only white person on the train and people would just stop in my doorway and stare. This has been a frequent occurrence in China since arrive, sometimes I find it very annoying and sometimes I just find it confusing. Case and point people staring at me while im trying to sleep, I mean I get it, many people especially the older generations coming from the villages literally have never seen a foreigner and some of them are just simply intrigued but what is the point of watching someone in bed? And its not like when I look at them they look away, sometimes people will stare for a good ten or fifteen minutes no matter if you stare back, smile, or shake your head, like I said its just confusing.

There was one lady probably about thirty who walked past my cabin a few times in the night and just smiled at me. In the early morning when the bed underneath me opened up she walked by again and jumped on the chance. She moved all her stuff into my cabin and I woke up a few times to her just staring at me and smiling. I would politely smile back and close my eyes again. Then I felt a quick tap and when I woke up again she was offering to share her cereal with me. Many Chinese (especially the older generation) take a lot of pride in being very polite to visitors which includes foreigners, so many times I will be walking down the street and someone will stop me, dig through their purse, offer me a candy they found at the bottom of their bag or pocket, smile, and walk away. Not wanting to be rude myself I awkwardly took a bite of her breakfast. She then took out a huge loaf of banana bread ripped it in half ate one side herself (without hands which was quite amusing) and gave me the other half. Next thing I know we are sharing a lemonade, eating apples, and using the same napkin. It was a surreal experience, I really cant describe it in any other way than very confusing.

There have been many similar situations since arriving here and they all just make me laugh. Whether it is taking my picture, coming up to shake my hand, or mocking my laugh (which is apparently a huge gut buster around here), I have just felt like im having an out of body experience so many times. After the train I got on a bus and was sitting in a row by myself. There was a really good looking guy that had been eyeing me up in the train station and he came to sit down on the row across from me. He knew minimal English but still managed to try and have somewhat of a conversation. When we realized it wasn’t going past “where are you from” he resorted to sharing with me his coffee candies and French bread. After a while I was off in lala land and my window was all fogged up so I resorted back to childhood entertainment and drew a big heart so I could see out the window. About ten minutes later I look over at the guy and he drew an arrow on his window. Aww it was so cute, it’s a different kind of non verbal flirting around here for sure, actually its probably the most adorable flirting ive experienced but where the heck do you go with it? I smiled and just kinda felt awkward the rest of the way.

I only have another week left here but I cant wait to have my next awkward experience. They happen so often and are always so interesting that although they make me feel not-so-nice inside at times, I also cant wait till the next one just to see what its all about. Ohhh China you sure do make me smile.