This one has a story. It is a long story I will attempt to make short (fat chance).
Every year every person (or so it seems) returns home for the New Year. This year 300 million people were expected to travel - nearly the entire population of the US. Some people compare it to Christmas in the US. IT IS NOT LIKE CHRISTMAS. Here people become unavailable for pretty much an entire month for extracurricular activities or dinners. Then during the actual holiday they get an entire week off. Business close. The streets are eerily quiet and huge dangerous but beautiful fireworks are set off 10 fee from the base of your apartment building. The discerning and wise ex-pat does not travel out-of-town during the weeks leading up to the holiday since EVERYBODY is try to go somewhere. The particular places to avoid are usually the train stations and bus stations. Most people cannot afford to fly, so flying is actually the way to go if you have to travel (less people) and the direction of the flight should wisely be to outside of the country. Nevertheless, once my kids stopped crying whenever the very loud fireworks were set off outside their window, they actually began to enjoy it and that helped us like the holiday a bit more.
Unfortunately, we had to travel a couple weeks before the holiday...right about the time all students were returning home...on a train...from a train station running the slow trains (cheapest way to travel which is the favored form of travel for students and migrant workers)...on a day it snowed. Unfortunately we did not know about the snow until the moment we stepped outside of our apartment. That was an unfortunate side effect of waking up while it was still dark and not opening the curtains. We left our apartment early enough to make a train on a normal day but not on a snow day. It took us almost 10 minutes to even get past our gate because we were the very first people to walk through and were having to blaze a path with our roller suitcase and stroller. It was definitely a first for this Texas girl. It was enough snow that everything in Central Texas would have shut down and we would have stayed inside all day. However this day it was not an option.
Needless to say, we missed our train. But really, we were so close! We promptly bought tickets for the next available train and expected to be on our way within the hour. Unfortunately this is not how it played out. In the words of a local friend "they lost the train" and all communication with it. I am not sure if was because of the snow or what - other trains were arriving and departing without issue. Anyways, here is the crux of our problem. Train traveling is typically the most reliable form of travel in this country. So, when a 2 hour train departs at 8am, we can expect to arrive at 10am. Also, I typically over prepare, and for this trip I decided to turn over a new leaf and not bring an entire bag of snacks for all of the "what ifs"...however we needed that bag of snacks for this trip. This train station only sells little cakes, flavored dried meat from strange animal parts, and bottled water. In order for KB to run across the street to pick up some McDonald's he would have to take the risk of missing the train whenever it arrived, and we knew whenever it arrived we would have to run to get on it. Basically leaving the train station to get lunch was out of the question, so the kids probably ate about 8 of those little cakes each. I on the other hand was holding out for the promise of a delicious Subway sandwich when we finally arrived, and when we finally did arrive and ate lunch it was around 3pm. This pregnant girl was hungry and ate an entire foot long.
Now let me finally explain the picture below. The train station was packed with people. After standing for about 30 minutes I finally played the pregnancy card and was given a seat. Avril spent the majority of the time in my lap because her socks were soaked from the snow. We took off her socks in effort to give them a chance to dry. This created another issue. Although most citizens of this country do not think twice about the fact that the majority of public buildings are not heated, they themselves think it is not good to be cold...so you would think they would heat the buildings...Anyways, no less than 30 people stopped to tell me I needed to put my daughter's socks back on because she was cold. For the first few people I explained her socks were wet and need to dry out. After while I started talking to them in English (which they thankfully could not understand) about how it was rude to tell other people what to do with their kids, how I know what is best for my child, and how they clearly do not fully understand the situation. Then after a while KB recommended I stop talking because I was acting ungodly and he was afraid someone who could understand English was going to hear me.
Overtime the situation with our hungry and cranky kids began to unravel (hence the picture below) and we (I) began to set a deadline for when we were just doing to forget the mandatory trip and head back to our nice warm home that had food in the refrigerator. I also think the local news crew who kept trying to film our family did not help my level of irritation. Fortunately 30 minutes before I was going to turn into a nag and start my real campaign to head home, the train arrived. The rest of the trip was lovely and uneventful, and I can say I am happy we made it. After I ate my foot long Subway sandwich I even repented of my bad attitude at the train station.
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