Fun on the Metro

There are definitely great things about being in this large Asian city. Two dollar shampoos/head massages are clearly high on the list. So are all the other kinds of massages you can get for basically pennies. I also love these shopping carts they have here. They are like the little baskets you can carry around at Wal-Mart if you don’t want to push one of those bulky carts. The genius of these baskets is that they have wheels so you can fill them full of heavy things and still easily maneuver around the store. I am tempted to make an offer to buy one even though I am pretty sure they aren’t for sale.

Another great thing about this place is the metro/subway system. There are at least five lines but there will be up to nine later this year. They are super clean unlike New York’s subway system which is like a giant toilet. The trains come about every two minutes and make it super easy to get around the city. The signs are in English which also helps greatly. There is some good people watching with plenty of weird fashions and mole beards. There have been many fun adventures on the metro for my team. Sometimes the metro is so crowded that you literally squeeze yourself in or out of the subway car. Sometimes people try to bring large luggage or boxes onto the metro, which is pretty much a terrible idea. It makes it super difficult to disembark the car. One time my student, Sarah started backing up into what she thought was an empty space and fell onto a giant box. Good times.

Sarah has a lot of adventures on the subway. Whenever a seat opens up, we all race to try to beat the locals to the coveted seat. Sarah was making a power move to the seat and totally beat some guy to the seat. Apparently he didn’t see her sneak into the seat and ended up sitting right on her lap. Talk about awkward!

My favorite subway moment involved my student, David. We were on our way home from a long day at English camp. David was a little away from the rest of us and we lost track of him. We got to our subway stop and I saw David walk out in front of us. He happens to be 6 foot 9 so he is fairly easy to see. I see David talking to some guy I have never seen and then all of a sudden they are hugging in a very awkward way. I guess any hug in a metro station is going to be a bit awkward. We were so confused about why David was hugging some guy in the metro. It turned out they had talked for most of the long ride. As they were parting ways, David thought the guy was reaching in for a hug so David went for it. The guy seemed a bit stiff and confused about the whole thing. After the guy left and David thought about it for a moment, he realized that the guy had been trying to measure himself against David and was not going in for a hug after all. Always an adventure on the metro!