After spending four full days in Shanghai, the three girls and I took it easy the last day. We went to People’s Square again, this time with our new friend, Edward, a 23 year old from New York looking to start a business in China. I was surprised how refreshing it was to be around an American who was not a “SASer”. Even though in port I’ve had many interactions with locals, their extent is really limited by how much I manage to communicate without knowing the language. It was nice to see a new face and actually be able to explain the concept of Semester at Sea and my experiences so far.
After spending some time in an underground mall (that is actually a converted bomb shelter!) we decided it was about time to head over to the train station to head over to Hong Kong. But to our surprise, somehow Noel was missing. She had been with us just 5 minutes before, and it was out of character for her to just wander off without telling one of us. We took turns searching the mall, while one of us stayed at the store we last saw her at, hoping she would turn up. After frantically searching for 20, then 40, then 60 minutes, we had exhausted all of our options. We tried asking the security guard to use the intercom to page her, but with the language barrier, it took at least fifteen minutes to explain ourselves, and eventually we learned that since we didn’t speak Chinese, we couldn’t page her. We had 45 minutes until our train was scheduled to leave, and we realized we had no other choice but to go to the station and hope that she found her way there. We caught a cab and sat in Shanghai traffic—it was just our luck that our first experience with highway congestion was when we were late for our 18 hour train! When we got dropped off, we ran through the terminal Home Alone-style, found our platform, and frantically showed our ticket to the station workers. They yelled in Chinese and pointed forcefully in the opposite direction towards the exit! Panicking, we spotted a Chinese woman motioning us to follow her. We compared tickets to check that we were both going to Hong Kong, and she led us to the customs line, since traveling to Hong Kong is considered crossing a border out of mainland China. We threw our bags into the x-ray conveyor belts, and ran to the desk to have our passports stamped. I looked at my watch and we had 6 minutes before the train was scheduled to depart! We cleared customs and were directed out to the platform where the train was waiting for us. We ran with all of our bags to Car #8, almost completely relieved, still praying that Noel would be sitting in our cabin. We opened the door to beds 15-16-17-18 and lo and behold, Noel was sitting on the bottom bunk eating a snack. (Cue exhale.)
If there was one moment on this trip that felt like The Amazing Race, this was it. And the best part- it was a non-elimination round! Even though we had one package of cookies to last the 4 of us the entire train ride, we made the best of it by making our own subtitles to the bizarre religious movie on our personal TV, journaling, and best of all, sleeping for 10 hours. When I woke up at 8 in the morning, I looked out the window and saw the most beautiful countryside. Mountain ranges fanned out around the train tracks, dotted with houses and colored with carefully cultivated farmland. Hardworking farmers tended to their crops, even on this Sunday morning. The greenery raced past our window, and before we knew it, we were seeing signs for Hong Kong. After a long and exhausting journey, we made our way back to the ship. I never expected the feeling of coming home after a long day to rush through me like I did when the MV Explorer came into view. I had found the water again, and I was home.
Tonight I looked out into the dark waters after dinner, and realized how calming the black of the night is. Out in the distance, the black waves blend into the dark night sky, lit solely by the constellations. The engine murmured behind me and the misty salt of the seas sprayed gently on my face. It’s been five weeks, and the ocean already feels like where I belong... the world is my playground and, honestly, I couldn’t be happier.
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