So I should be working on my final report that’s due next week, but there’s this little thing called procrastination…we all know how that goes. To fill you in on my current progress in the lab, I still haven’t been able to synthesize much more besides borax and table salt. If I never actually told you any details about my experiment and the compound I’m looking to produce, all you need to know is that I have no use for borax and salt. I have about a week left in the lab, so we’ll see if I hit the jackpot.
In other news, this weekend was our epic beach weekend, and I think I’ve finally recovered from the lack of sleep and excitement of the ocean. I really could go on and on about my satisfaction in sitting by the ocean and having a horizon to stare at, but I won’t bore you.
Our beach adventure really started early last week when Nebromaha and I went to purchase the train tickets for everyone with one of our grad students. To buy a train ticket you must go visit the whole in the wall counter where a lady looks up the train you want on her computer, prints the ticket, and you give her money. In the internet age, this seems pretty complex, but there’s no e-ticket option. And there is also no option to buy tickets on the fastest train that leaves at the best times when you’re a foreigner and don’t have time to go half way across the city to show your passport. We learned this only after waiting in the line for half an hour, forcing us to return to the office and look up some other potential trains. After much back and forth with the lady at the computer on round 2, we finally left with our tickets. And not just any tickets. They were the cheapest tickets, under 15 dollars round trip, and in other words, the worst seats possible. 4:50 AM Saturday departure from Beijing, arriving after 8 AM in Beidaihe, with the return train leaving Beidaihe at 11:50 PM Sunday, arriving in Beijing at 3:30 AM Monday morning. And we had no seats. These were standing room only tickets. Needless to say, we were in for quite the adventure.
After work on Friday, Nebromaha and I stocked up on food at Tsinghua for breakfast and lunch. We also stopped at the grocery store for some other supplies and I made probably the best four dollar investment I’ve made in a long time – the fold up stool. These proved to be invaluable, because no one actually stands for four hours on a train, regardless of what their ticket says. Most people come prepared with a stool so they can sit in the aisle. This was something we were alerted to ahead of time, and it made all the difference. The stools also got carried around for much of the weekend, which made for a fun game to find the most random places we could pull them out and take a seat. (I think that escalator won.)
Returning home with everything we needed, we stopped for a quick nap before heading off at 10 PM. In addition to the stool tip, we were also told that we needed to get to the station incredibly early. Our friends told us it would be easiest if we slept at the station, something that’s fairly common. Leaving at 10 allowed us the chance to catch the subway before it closed for the night. Arriving at the Beijing Railway Station, we realized we were in for quite the night. The huge square outside the station was full of people camping out for the night on a few sheets of newspaper. We found our own spot and circled up like travelers on the Oregon Trail with their Conestoga wagons. Bags in the middle, then the stools. We sat for a while, drinking our radiation grade Mountain Dew, thinking “are we really doing this right now?” (Mountain Dew comes in the most ridiculous neon green bottle here.) But this is a normal night at the Beijing Railway Station. We didn’t come prepared with newspapers and couldn’t find any place to get one, so we just slept on the ground in shifts (the surface really wasn’t too much harder than our beds at the hotel).
Next step: get on the train to Beidaihe…along with the rest of Beijing. This is where all rules are thrown out the window along with personal bubbles, and the pushing and shoving begins. Being the smallest one, I was strategically chosen to lead the group. Once through the ticket check it was a sprint to the track, and the mobs quickly grew at the car entrances. This wasn’t the first stop for the train, so it was already packed with people, many of whom had to first get off before we could shove our way on. As they literally fell out of the train one by one, we continued to push and shove along with everyone else jockeying for position. Although all of us had tickets for the train, this in no way guaranteed us a spot. This was the how-many-clowns-can-we-fit-in-
I lucked out, able to squeeze myself next to a family that was lucky enough to have seats. My stool fit great right next to the small table between the seats, getting me out of the aisle. Now you might think that an aisle packed with people is pretty useless as an aisle, but every few minutes someone would come barreling through, searching out the bathroom or the food car, forcing everyone to squeeze even closer together. This got old really quickly, but amazingly everyone seemed to be in a good mood, especially considering the circumstances. There were very few eye rolls or frustrated sighs when the next person came crawling through the aisle, disturbing everyone else. In such close quarters, the stranger sidled up next to you quickly became your new best friend. After the initial angry pushing and shoving, everyone seemed to happily enjoy their journey.
The train ride really was the most exciting part of our weekend. The beach was great. Definitely busy and commercialized, but to me it didn’t much matter. It was the ocean. We caught a bit of a snag trying to find a room for the night, as most places were already full or don’t accept foreigners. But we finally lucked out with a two story bungalow for less than 20 bucks a person, which was probably the last room in town.
The highlight of the weekend, besides the ocean, was our dinner on Saturday night. I had heard that Beidaihe is famous for their fresh seafood – really fresh. I decided that my goal for the weekend was to eat a fish that I had chosen out of the tank myself, a common occurrence at high end restaurants in Beijing, but an ordinary culinary experience on the coast. However, this was no ordinary culinary experience for us! After picking our fish from the rows of tanks, the man snatched it with his net, and then “smack!” He swung the fish up over his shoulder in the net and threw it as hard as he could on the ground. And then its tail stopped flipping and it was dead. But I am confident to note that this fish did not die in vain. It was no doubt the best fish I’ve ever eaten. It was served whole, lightly fried, with some sort of sauce and spices. And in about the same amount of time it took for the fish smacker man to kill the fish, it was gone, because we devoured it! I even tried an eyeball, but it was crunchy and weird. I don’t think I’d recommend it. But all that was left of that fish was the tip of its tail, its jaw, and spine. Fish from our Gloucester fish share will just never be the same.
The rest of our time at the beach was fairly uneventful. We slept, read, played in the sand, got sunburned – typical beach activities. The train ride home was also rather uneventful, a pleasant surprise after the last trip. It was much less crowded this time around, and we managed to hit the jackpot and find a table with four seats. We arrived back at Beijing Railway Station unscathed, only to then be completely ripped off by our cab driver on the way back to the hotel. He wanted to agree to the price ahead of time (a high price) while we kept pointing at the meter. At 3 AM you don’t really have any other options, so we sucked it up and headed home for a few hours of sleep. It was back to work again on Monday morning. I learned that I have indeed inherited the Trescott sleep gene, as I pulled one of those head bob nod offs while my grad student and I were analyzing my samples using the scanning electron microscope. This, by the way, was right after my bro date with four of the guys from the lab who took me to a dumpling restaurant for lunch because I told them I like dumplings and they ordered cow intestine and chicken feet just to give me a hard time. The cow intestine was a win, but the chicken feet not so much. I decided I’m not really into eating toenails…
Betty
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