Knock off highspeed trains, and GDP buffs

23112016


Packed our bags to say goodbye to Beijing. The subway got us to the train station, it is near the airport, so it was the reverse of our journey a few days before.

The Beijing train station is huge, easily the size of a midsize US airport. There were at least 24 tracks, and the tracks were 2-3 levels above ground.

The engineering that went into this place was pretty astounding.

We got some pastry snacks for the train ride in the station, we noticed the fresh made stuff is DRASTICALLY less expensive than pre-packaged, the pastries were between 6-12CNY, but when you went accross the way to the packaged snacks area suddenly you were paying 28CNY for the mass-market version.

When going through security we showed our ticket to the guard, asking where to go, and he pointed up. We went up, walked around, and went back down thinking we were supposed to go around a certain point. unfortunately going down meant we left the secure area, so we went back through, and the guards laughed a little.

We eventually found our train, and our seat. These high speed trains are pretty great, definately on par with the high speed trains of Japan. The train, and line was designed to handle 380km/hr, but they decided 300km/h was fast enough, and actually more efficient. It is over 750 miles, and took about 6 hours. There were attendants walking around with snacks, as well as trays of food for purchase. There were toilets, trash, and a hot water dispenser in every car.

It was pretty swanky, we got the 2nd class tickets and the seats were slightly larger than US domestic flights, and all the other passengers were normal people, some kids, but no tantrums or crying children it was an easy trip.

The views outside were pretty interesting. Much of the route looked alot like middle america, big flat areas, with farmland as far as you can see in either direction. But unlike middle america, threa are random assortments of monstrously large apartment buildings sprouting out of no where. And I mean middle of no where, its like, if Manhattan, KS or Baraboo WI had 5, Fifteen Story apartment buildings in it. These tiny towns didnt appear to have enough jobs to support the 10,000 people that would be living in these complexes. On top of that, it appeared as though many of them were empty, entire buildings with no lights on, no shades down, no laundry hangng. It was eerie.

The Shanghai station is a little out of town so we didnt really see much on the way in via subway. When we popped up out of the subway near our hotel, we saw that Shanghai is indeed a modern metropolis. We got to our hotel, and we were greeted with a cup of tea. They also saw that i left a note in the hotels.com remarks section, asking for a high floor, so they gave us a room on the top floor.

This place is pretty great, here is the view from our room.

We did some research, and found a Szechuan place. This place had a similar menu to the Grandmas place, a big book with pictures, and a checksheet you order on. We had crushed spicy cucumber again, a dish of noodles, a basket of fried mushrooms, and a pork dish on a bed of pumpkin and millet. It was all pretty good, The pork meal was very interesting, the pumpkin calmed alot of the heat that is inherent in Szechuan food.

We wandered home and I passed out very quickly, while laura watched whatever was on HBO.

teaching is a reward unto itself

6612 yet another day of interview presentations, some of the girls from the gaggle i hang out with were freaking out about talking infront of us, they subsequently did well, later in the evening they were freaking out about the final tomorrow, so i walked through everything with the whole gaggle (covertly doing my own studying while schooling them). anyways more on this later. after the class i went to eat with some catz, unfortunately it was a none-too-exciting dish of four cheese gnocchi, so nothing epic on the food front. found my way home, and took a nap. the Big One woke me up to go buy beer for her dad, she wanted someone to point out what was local, cause im an expert i guess? anyways, i end up getting some stuff to bring home for tastings as well. my pops always laments "once you got old enough to be cool, you moved out" so i figure i can at least bring some good beers back with me from the whole "being cool/moving out" process. i then wandered around Prague a lil by myself, trying to chase down a good vinoteka, that carried the craft local made Czech Absinthe, again to share with my Best Friend For Life. after all this a section of our dialogue went to the Ballet, it was at the Státní Opera ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_State_Opera ). first off, small world category; i ran into a girl from my capstone class. we walked into the foyer, and hesitated deciding as to which direction to take to our nosebleeds, and she spotted me as she was waiting at the ticket counter, she is backpacking round Europe now that shes all graduated. it was a rendition of Cinderella. i have been to very few ballets in the course of my existence, so i really have nothing to gauge against, it was interesting, there were a few points where i noted the male dancers (a set of aristos in the ballroom scene) were off, but for the most part it seemed pretty good. everyone was also a little disappointed by the dress Cinderella was wearing throughout said ballroom scene, she was supposed to be like resplendent, and make everyone else look as the Big One put it "like the didnt even get dressed that morning". the walk home from the theater we got to chat with Harlow himself, that was fun, (not a moment of asskissery, i say this with the utmost sincerity) he is a cool guy, even when ignoring his seemingly endless pool of knowledge, im glad he runs this dialogue, as ive had my heart set on this one since learning of the Dialogue program, his ways have certainly exacerbated my enjoyment of the trip. upon the completion of said walk, much of the troop of girls gathered in the hallway to go over the exam. i am reassured now after going over everything with them, i guess that whole "you cant know till you teach" adage has some veracity to it.

Tuesday 2811

Today we wandered around the Plitzice lakes, it was an interesting natural landscape, and full of tourists, we got a lil lost found our way to Poljanak, and then walked back to the natural parks area, and got on the bus for the last time, to Zagreb.

Havent seen much of Zagreb, as our hotel is in the middle of no where, we did however find a mall, which had a movie theater, which was showing Captain America, with Croatian subtitles, it was awesome. there were explosions, and car chases, and beautiful women, so really all you need to make an entertaining movie.

anyway tomorrow is a meeting with some Croatian members of parliament, it should be interesting.