Hi friends and family,
We have been back home now for nearly a week. Here is a look
at our trip.
Like I mentioned in our previous post we were going to be
taking a train with all five of our kids for 26 or so hours to get to Chengdu.
Trying to get all of our small kids to move in one direction and pulling all of
our luggage through the train station (as the rest of China attempts to do the
same) is the most difficult part of taking the train as a family. The train
station, unfortunately, doesn’t have elevators/escalators, which means running
multiple times up (or down) flights of stairs to retrieve luggage (and kids).
This will no doubt get easier as our kids get older. Right now it’s still
pretty challenging. I was happy though that Sydney was able to pull one of our
suitcases for this trip.
One funny scene we came across was on our way to the train
station. We saw a group of guys riding mountain bikes decked out with biking
gear. They looked like they were pretty serious about biking. One guy though
must have only been semi-serious, because he was smoking a cigarette as they road through
town. Watching people exercise while smoking is quite the ironic picture.
After we got through the train station and made it safely to
our cabin I began shifting luggage around. (We booked four soft sleeper beds. Each
cabin has four beds, so we didn’t have to share our room with anyone). I came
across Lily’s carry-on bag and all it had in it was a kid’s Bible. Heather then
tells me that it’s all she wanted to bring. Precious.
After we’d been on the train for a little bit we got all of the
kids to sit on one of the top bunks and then put our computer on the top bunk
across from them and set up a movie. A bunk bed movie theater if you will.
Today’s first showing is the kid’s movie Epic. It’s at this point that I’m
incredibly grateful. You’re not always guaranteed a cabin with a functional electrical
outlet. The fact that ours works means we will have movies for the duration of
our trip. If our electricity didn’t work we would have had insanity for the
duration of the trip.
For meals we have a bunch of snacks packed, some banana bread, muffins, and bread/peanut butter. The train also has ramen for sale, but it’s twice the
normal going rate (6rmb for a bowl, yikes!). Side note, you can buy a Snickers in a
lot of places in China, but not on the train. Bummer!
During this trip I’m reminded of something random. Aubrey
loves using squatty potties. I don’t know where this love came from, but she
has it. And that’s good for her, because squatty potties are your only option
on the train (but dark tunnels and curves in the track make it more difficult
to use).
Night time on the train is also pretty difficult for our
family. Trying to get our son Isaac to sleep without the prison walls of a crib
is not an easy task. In the morning we are making our way
through the Sichuan province and it’s beautiful. Two train attendants then come to our cabin
to collect the blankets that are given to the passengers. I’m not at all
comforted as they fold each of ours and just put them back on the bed for the
next people to use. (To their credit they did take one of the blankets that had
pop tart smeared on it.)
We then arrive safely in Chengdu. I will write more about our time in Chengdu in my next post.
much love,
the petersons
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