So, this is a blog where I basically just complain about how hot and how hard it is to do anything here and also I try to make myself look really cool and independent. But I needed to write it to validate the last two days of my life.



So, here is what I have to do re-learn this summer: Never assume anything and that I love and hate this place.On Wednesday I went to the Vietnam Embassy to pick up my visa. The embassy is about an hour away by public transportation and you have to stand the whole time, switch subways, and go to a totally different station at one point. And keep in mind it is ridiculously hot and humid. Anyway, I shouldn't have assumed my visa would be ready after 4 working days. They told me to come back on Monday. So since I was sort of in the area I took the subway to the Beijing Train Station to buy my train ticket from Beijing to Hanoi. When you get off the station there are like a million people all saying "Fa Piao" over and over and over again. It is like you are in some Buddhist Temple and everyone is saying their mantra out loud. "Fa Piao" means "receipt" they are illegally selling people fake receipts so that people can use them to get money from their companies, I think. That is what I read in some book. But I don't understand why they all wait by the train station. Anyway, I wait in line for a good 40 minutes, there is a lot of pushing, there are a million people everywhere sleeping, selling things, and don't forget the loud speaker with the annoying shrill voice screaming things the entire time to everyone. I finally get to the window and I tell the lady the speech I have practically memorized by now: I want to go from Beijing to Hanoi on a hard sleeper on August 24." She says through her microphone so everyone and their mother can here, "We don't sell those tickets." I guess I shouldn't have assumed that the train station would be the best place to buy a train ticket. I know a lot of people just go to travel companies and pay an extra amount of money so that they don't have to deal with the hassle but I hardly ever do because A. I am totally cheap and B. I sort of like getting the tickets on my own (which I am changing my mind about right now...) Anyway, I ask the lady where I can buy a ticket. She says, "I don't know, why don't you check a tourist company." By then it was 4:30 in the afternoon, it would take me an hour to get home, and I was so exhausted so I just had a Popsicle and went home. (I eat 3-5 Popsicles a day to get me through the heat)

Next day after 4 hours of Chinese class I set out to buy my ticket from a tourist company. The first place doesn..'t sell them. They tell me to try another place down the street. I look for that place only to be told it doesn..'t exist anymore, as of last week. The next place doesn..'t know. The next place tells me the only place in Beijing that sells train tickets to Hanoi is a hotel next to the Beijing Train Station. They write the name of the hotel down for me. I hesitate because I am so hot and sweaty and all I want to do is find a coffee shop, pay too much money for a coffee, and relax, the idea of another hour long trip BACK to the Beijing Train station doesn..'t sound like fun. But I go BACK on the train and arrive back at the train station. I find this big, fancy hotel. I go in and find the travel office and tell the ladies there, "Hi, I want to buy a train ticket to Hanoi." They all tell me, "Oh, sorry, we don..'t sell those here."



When they tell me this I seriously feel like crying. I know it sounds stupid but remember, i am very sensitive. I ask them where they sell the tickets and they tell me I should go the Beijing WEST Train Station (which is really far away AND did you know the Beijing Municipality is the same size as Belgium and there are 30 million people here so basically Beijing is BIG and going from one part to the next is not that much fun) I ask the ladies is they are 100% sure I can buy the tickets there because I don..'t want to go all the way over and then find out they don..'t sell them there. They tell me there are sure. So I take a bus to the Beijing West Train Station. One and a half hours later, of standing and being crowded between a million of Beijing..'s population, I arrive. I look for this bank that they told me about. The highlight of this part was that I asked a man where the bank was and we talked for a little bit and I was wearing sunglasses and all of the sudden he looked at me and said-"You..'re a foreigner! But you..'re Chinese is so good!" I felt happy because just that morning my Chinese teacher had told me my Chinese was bad. But then I realized the man was mildly retarded as he started following me and asking me questions and I didn..'t take the compliment too much to heart. ..

Anyway, I found the bank and low and behold, in a small corner sat a lady and a desk and she could get me a ticket to Hanoi! I was so happy! I wanted to kiss this lady! I had found the ticket on my own! I didn..'t understand why they sold them at a bank and why a lady in a corner sold only tickets specifically to Hanoi. The frustration of it all didn..'t bother anymore because I had found the ticket on my own and bought it. Then I bought another Popsicle and I was so happy and loving China and totally looking forward to going to Vietnam. As I took an hour an a half bus ride home I hoped that my visa would be ready on Monday when I went to pick it up and I thought that if I had trouble getting things done in China, where I know some Chinese--what would Vietnam be like by myself for 30 days? Oh well, for right now Im pretty happy.