Redeeming Moments

There are moments when I have a strong dislike of China.  Moments where I find myself wishing I was in America. I had one such moment this afternoon at the train station.  Of all places in China, except perhaps the post office, the train station is the one place where such moments are likely to happen.  I had waited in a long line of pushing people for about twenty minutes, watching others cut in line in front of me, when I finally made my way to the ticket counter.  Confidently I said the line I’d been rehearsing in Chinese the past twenty minutes, “One ticket to Changchun on Friday, around 2 pm.”  “Come back tomorrow to buy it.”  Maybe I hadn’t spoken clear enough.  “A ticket for Friday, the day after tomorrow.”  “Buy it tomorrow.”  The next person in line pushed me out of the way, and I walked away in a confused and frustrated daze.  Most of the time, you can buy tickets 7-10 days ahead of time.  At the very least, you can buy them 3 days before departure.  I had, and still have, no clue why I couldn’t buy the ticket.  I left the train station grumbling under my breath; not only had I traveled all the way downtown in the snow, and then waited twenty minutes, but now in the midst of pie baking and roll dough making and roll dough rising and roll dough forming tomorrow I would have to go downtown again. Let’s just say I wasn’t loving China in that moment.

By the Father’s grace, these moments of intense dislike of China don’t tend to linger very long.  In fact, on many occasions they are often followed by a redeeming moment that proves my love of this place once again.  Fortunately, today that was the case.  I ran a couple more errands while I was downtown (I wasn’t about to make the entire trip a waste…I still operate from a monochronic mindset) and then headed back home.  I stopped in a teammate’s house to drop off an item I picked up for her and ran into my best Chinese friend.  She knew I had gone out to get a ticket and asked if I was able to get a seat ticket (as opposed to a standing only ticket).  I told her my story, which confused her just as much as me.  “So what will you do?” she asked me.  “I’ll have to go back tomorrow.”  “But tomorrow is Thanksgiving!”  “Yeah…but…”  “You’re cooking a lot!”  “I’ll find the time.”  “No, I need to go out there tomorrow anyway, I’ll get your ticket.”  Gratitude and love filled my heart.  I’m not sure if she was really planning on going downtown, but her willingness to get the ticket was such a welcome reminder of why I love the people here.  As if that wasn’t enough, I then headed out to my egg lady.  As she was bagging eggs for me, I made small talk about the American holiday we were celebrating tomorrow, and telling her about all the cooking I was doing.  I told her I wasn’t just buying eggs for me, but that one pound was for another teacher.  I asked her for the total price, and she responded with a grin, “Your pound is for free!  Happy Thanksgiving!”

Have I mentioned lately how much I love China?