We woke up to our alarm at around 6am this morning and got ourselves to the train station for our final train journey home to Jinan. As the train trip from Xian to Jinan takes 15 hours, we didn't really do much today except for sit on the train - actually, we mainly "lay" on the train because the only tickets we could get were sleepers, even though we were travelling through the day.
Most of our journey was taken up by reading and snoozing, though Liv managed to make a new 4 year old friend. This new friendship arose while Liv was lying down reading her book, suddenly aware of a little voice calling out "Ayi, Ayi" (Aunty, Aunty - as a sign of respect children call all people older than them Aunty or Uncle). It took a few seconds for her to realise she was the person the calls were directed at, but once she looked up, she was occupied for the next few hours! Chinese books were read, hide and seek was played, and Liv has decided that children are by far the best Chinese teachers out there - not only do they speak slowly, but they are infinitely patient and willing to repeat words as many times as needed.
As fellow train passengers walked past our berth, they stopped in to look at where all the noise and laughter was coming from. We think that Nai Nai (Grandma) and Ye Ye (Grandpa) were quite happy to have some time off from looking after their boisterous granddaughter (grandparents have almost taken over the role of parents in China, as parents have to work and day care or nannies are almost unheard of), and Liv was definitely happy to have someone to spend a few hours with.
We pulled into Jinan around 11pm and after a short taxi ride, we were finally home again.
Adlibing it home.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
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