Beijing Subway

Last Friday I was on my way to some friends' goodbye party, getting off at one station to meet A, and then continuing on to our destination together. Guomao, our meetup point, is arguably the busiest station in the entire Beijing subway system and at 6 pm on a Friday night it's mass chaos. I had already ridden two different lines for an hour to get there and had been pushed to the center of the train - butt to butt and belly to belly with my fellow subway sardines. I usually get offered a seat cause of the baby but in this crowd there was no way. 

Guomao station was coming and after asking around I knew that everyone between me and the door was also getting off. I was the last person in the crowd trying to de-board the train and had my purse, belly, and reusable shopping bag full of fruit salsa and cinnamon chips all in tow. The doors open, middle of rush hour, the crowd is squeezing out of the train like it's a birth canal, and I'm on the very tail end. I get to the doors but not in time to beat the herd of black hair chomping at the bit to board the train. The crowd engulfs me, surrounds me on every side, rips the shopping bag clean off of my arm, all I was left with was the straps, and I was pushed back on to the train. I was forced back to the center, reached through the crowd past 4 people and pulled my bag out of the shoulders it was smushed between - they didn't even notice it was there. I was yelling, my tupperware had been broken open, and the bag was dripping with fruit juice. I sifted it through the people down to my knees and as it was dripping juice on to my foot I looked up at the door - and there was A. He had been on the platform waiting for me and just happened to be at the exact door where I had attempted to get off the train. He saw me get pushed back on and jumped on at the last second. 

My mix of emotions was overwhelming. Anger at all the people around me, frustration at the lack of awareness in these crowds - so much that they didn't even notice they had bowled me over or broke my bag, relief at seeing A, and ticked at my fruit being spilled. It wasn't until after we left the next station that I burst in to tears, it all just really put me over the edge. So that's all. Just thought I should share the latest moment when I thought, "What the hell are we doing here?"

We're happy, healthy, and doing so well, but sometimes this crazy city reminds me how much we need each other, our dear friends here, and a good strong shoulder to push through the crowds. :)

Where to begin...

I feel like I have so much blogging to catch up on I don't even know where to start..Summer is over, home was wonderful, we're back in Beijing - together (hallelujah), my sister Leslie has been here visiting for the last 3 weeks, we visited a million sites, went on 2 vacations with her, baby is growing great, classes started yesterday, A's working full-time and loving it, that's all. Can I be done? No. I know I can't. Best part of being home - friends and family!

I'm just gonna go chronologically, cause the last 3 weeks have been awesome but summer was too wonderful not to mention it. So summer - it was blissful. We so wish that A could have stayed at home for longer, 3 weeks just wasn't long enough! The morning we were flying home we woke up to Neil Diamond, "Coming to America," and I can't even count how many times we said, "God Bless America," while we were there. We arrived in the end of June and I left in the end of August. I cried over the 4th of July parade and Bowman's grocery store, and was an absolute basket case when A left. Literally, I stood outside the check-in and security gates bawling the entire time. In my pregnancy, time at home was week 12 to week 20 which was a great span of time to get over my sickness. It ended up being the perfect timing for lots of different things in our lives and we're so happy that we could spend the time there.

It was so nice to catch up with family and friends and just be in a place where we feel so comfortable. It was surprisingly not-weird to be there, only a couple things caught us off guard and made us say, "Oh man, we really missed this." The first load of laundry we did through the dryer was one of those things, our clothes were so soft! We've been line drying for the last year - literally drying on a line stretched from one wall of our apartment to the other - and totally forgot how glorious it was to have soft clothes! It was really really nice to not be stared at for a second. The grocery store was absolutely glorious - relaxing really. Major highlights from the trip include family, nieces and nephews, dear friends, cousins, 4th of July, Cafe Rio, Olive Garden, a week in Bear Lake with my fam, visiting USU, gender ultrasound, baby shower, Zuppa's...I could go on and on.

Our week in Bear Lake with my family was glorious! My parents rented a house there from Monday to Sunday and we had everyone there but my sister's husband. Big lesson we learned from the week is that Hales love good food, we all like the same food, and we all think we're feeding 30 when we're actually feeding 15! The fridge and every cupboard was STACKED full with goodies and we ate like kings! Perfect weather, great house, family, water - thanks mom and dad for a great vacation!

We're so grateful we were able to spend the time and are looking forward to more fun summers in America to come. Next time we come home to visit, there will be 3 of us!