Big boohoo baby blog

This blog might as well be called complainfest, because Im going to sound like a big venting boo-hooing baby. However I am not keeping a blog to tell travel fairy tales, half truths, or write a self help book so here it is. Sometimes I have horrible days and today feels like one of them. To start with I has to spend 20 hours on a train from Hangzhou to Guilin which is daunting but I really tried to be so positive about it. It all started with an hour long standing room only bus ride to get to the South train station then we paid a ton of money to be crammed into a tiny room (closet) on the train with two other people for 20 hours straight. Yet I continued to tell myself I would stay positive. Oh, then I got a "lady visitor" aboard this delightfully clean (insert extreme sarcasm here) train. Super fun, yet staying positive. Try to see the beauty in the situation and remember that I am going to one of the most beautiful places in China. I typed and typed this great blog about the people I met on the train and the experience of it and the beauty that rushed past me. I wanted to scream when we were running two hours late but forced myself again to just stay calm and know I can't control it. Instead I just typed the blog on my iPod to publish at a later date. Although it was too long for me I did have some really enjoyable experiences on the train. The limestone cliffs and glistening rice paddies were quite spectacular.

We arrived several hours late in Guilin and after yet another bus ride arrived at the hostel and we were pleasantly surprised by the room. We went downstairs and ordered food, as I had eaten only a doughnut so far in the day and it was already 3:00pm. As I take a few bites into my sandwich my teeth suddenly grind against something so hard I thought I chipped a tooth. I pulled out something clearish bits that looked almost like glass or some freaky bone particles and showed it to the server. She goes to get the cook who tells me it's uncooked rice. Rice, I assure you, cannot scratch the wood table like these sharp things could. He immediately took the first sandwich and remade it (which I did not ask for but was greatly appreciated) and thankfully the second one was better. I have a language barrier so I was just chewing lightly and hoping for the best. I managed to get through the rest of meal with all teeth intact.

As we began to walk around Guilin I tried to force myself to feel happy. I was in this beautiful place but just couldn't shake this sense of exhaustion and gloom. We walked around the streets for awhile until Brad found a place to get a haircut. After that we stumbled upon the night market and things really began to look up. I pulled freshwater pearls out of a live oyster and bought some lychees which are one of my favorite fruits. I felt my spirits really begin to lift without forcing them and I found myself happy to be in China once again. Guilin was looking up even though I was still having bizarre motion vertigo from being on the train for so long.

We decided to end the night by going to a cute looking pizza place, called Pizza Papa. We ordered half Hawaiian (for me) half something with peppers for Brad (who hates Hawaiian). All seemed good in the world until the pizza arrived. Instead of normal sauce my half was smeared with some white substance. Those of you who know me well all know my deep hatred for mayonnaise. I'm talking hate here. Sure, I can eat it if it's artfully mixed in to a tuna sandwich but the sight/taste of goopy straight up mayonnaise makes me feel like throwing up. There, all over my Hawaiian masterpiece, was oopy goopy slathered mayonnaise. I retrieved a menu, pointed at the words "tomato sauce" to the server, and asked why I had mayonnaise smeared all over the pizza. After a few minutes of confusion she consulted with the manager several times and finally figured out the translation on their menu was wrong but the manager insisted they could not do anything. Apparently in Chinese characters it said mayonnaise but clear as day in English it said tomato sauce. Brad and I both stared in disbelief at her. My mouth physically could not eat that hot mayo mess and they has already made us pay prior to eating. I was having terrible luck with food today.

We explained that it was not our fault their menu said the wrong thing and if they did not want to remake the pizza they could give us a partial refund, since Brad's half was fine. No problem either way it was their choice. This poor waitress was going back and forth between us and the lady manager, who began yelling from ten feet away while sitting at another table and wouldn't she even look at us. Based on the scene she was creating and the stares from the other customers I knew she was saying nasty business about us in Mandarin. She kept flipping her hands at us like we were dirty trash she wanted to take out and yelling all fast. The apologetic waitress went back and forth as she apologized to us in English that there was nothing she could do. I could handle the 20 hour train, I could handle the 1 hour standing bus ride with my 30 lb backpack, I could handle getting my lady visitor on a dirty train, and I could deal with biting into sharp objects but damn it all I was not paying for gross hot mayonnaise pizza. Enough was enough.

As the manager turned away and began to talk on her phone (please stop for a moment and try to imagine a manager of a restaurant in America sitting at one of their tables talking trash and yelling on the phone about a customer sitting ten feet away) brad finally threatened to go over there. I took matters into my own hands. Staying totally calm I went and just sat at her table and just stared at her, smiling the entire time. After a minute of this she knew i wasn't going anywhere. She wouldn't even look at me but finally motioned the server over again. She spoke in rapid fire Mandarin and the server then informed me they would be remaking my pizza after all. I thanked her very nicely and the manager got up and huffed off to sit outside. I could not believe anyone could treat a customer so poorly especially when it was clear that they had made the mistake. I have rarely ever been treated with such disregard the way I was tonight, especially when I stayed as nice as I did and never raised my voice. I'm proud of myself for not ever lowering to her level of rudeness even though it was tempting to yell back. After a few minutes the manager came back inside.

As we waited for the new pizza to finish cooking Brad suddenly noticed a long tail poking through the fake moss overhead covering the ceiling beams. Yes, ladies and gentlemen you guessed it! A huge rat was perched above us probably waiting to feast on the nasty mayonnaise pizza we left behind. I felt physically ill watching it's fat squirmy tail dip below the fake foliage as that creature sat above. Then the pizza finished cooking and we quickly asked to get it to go rather than sitting there another moment. As we were leaving after profusely thanking the waitress for helping us translate Brad turned around and went back up to the counter. He gave the waitress a thumbs up and said, "you were great and very nice. Thanks for your help." He then turned to the manager who had made me feel so upset and said,"But you are very rude! You were rude to her and I didn't like it." He gave her a big thumbs down and the waitress started to snicker. We both turned and walked out the door. I hope that rat falls on her head. If this was America I would report her to the board of health and safety yet here in China there really isn't anything I can do other than thank my white knight Brad for defending my honor with the thumbs down sign.

We arrived back at the hostel and ate the pizza (rat and all I was not throwing it away after all that hassle) and I had a chance to calm down. I rarely care what others think of me yet it was really upsetting and made me feel vulnerable when she made such a scene. I didn't like being talked about in a language everyone else around me understands- at least have the decency to say it to my face in English and then I probably won't care at all. To add a cherry on top of this day I got online to add the finishing touches to my earlier eloquent blog about the train ride experience when the iPod malfunctioned and the whole thing erased. Everything. All of my hard work was gone in a second along with my continued attempt at a positive attitude. Poof!

I feel like that book Alexander and the Terrible,Horrible,No Good Very Bad Day. I wish I could remember how it ends but I can't- instead my story will end with me going to sleep and being grateful that tomorrow is a new beginning that won't involve trains, carrying backpacks, mean managers, mayonnaise, or rats. Here's hoping...

I warned you this wasn't pretty. Such is life whether in Colorado, Timbuktu, or China. Its not like anything catastrophic happened whatsoever- rather a series of irritating events that combined with hormones to make a frustrating day. This trip isn't all about sunshine and roses. At least the bad days are few and far between and maybe I just need to look a little bit deeper. Perhaps today is just like that yucky looking oyster from earlier tonight- it looks dirty on the outside and inside is a lot of squishy stuff to get through but hidden within are also just a few beautiful pearls. Hopefully Guilin proves to be a pearl and I bet it will be a lot shinier in the morning.