How to Get From Carmel, Indiana to Nanjing, China in Just Over One Day!

When my alarm went off at 5 a.m. Monday morning, I knew I had a big day ahead of me. I knew that flying by myself halfway around the world would almost certainly include some adventures, but I had a gameplan. I would fly from Indianapolis to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Shanghai. Once I arrived in Shanghai, I would find the train station, take the nearest train to Nanjing, and then take a taxi to the Nanjing University hotel. Pretty easy, right?

My day started out smoothly enough. I woke up, showered, ate breakfast, and then drove to the airport with my parents. After hugging my parents goodbye, I went to my gate. Sitting next to me, was a mother and her son speaking Chinese. I decided my Chinese adventures need not wait until Shanghai, so I started talking to them. Our conversation? A breeze. I could understand. I could speak. She could understand when I spoke. My Chinese isn't too bad! I was feeling good. I don't even remember the flight from Indianapolis to Chicago. The flight took off at 8:12 a.m. Eastern Time, and I woke up at 8:12 :) Central Time. After a two hour layover and one big goodbye later, I was on the plane to Shanghai. The flight was 14 hours and 21 minutes. I slept for 12 hours of it! I woke up just long enough to eat two meals and listen to a little Taylor Swift on my iPod...don't judge.

Getting through immigration and grabbing my luggage was no problem and before I knew it, I was in China! Ok, time to review the gameplan. After Shanghai...oh yeah, find the train station. Nevermind I forgot how to say "station" in Mandarin and I didn't have a dictionary, I had already successfully talked to a Chinese woman earlier today. I was ready. I first looked for any signs that said "train station." Uh oh. After two years of studying Chinese characters, I couldn't read any of the signs. I guess simplified characters are a bit more different than I had expected. No problem. I could just ask someone. I went to the information desk and told the workers I needed to find a train heading to Nanjing. The response? I still don't know. I saw her mouth open, and I could tell that something was coming out of her mouth, but that is as far as I got. Please tell me she is not speaking Chinese?! I smiled (my natural reaction to avoid panicking) and said what could be accurately described as my phrase of the day, "Can you please speak a little slower?" :) I understood enough that the lady was telling me I needed to find the train station. "Thanks." I asked her where the train station was? She opened her mouth and that same noise came out again, but this time I was able to catch the number "5". She was pointing her finger for me to walk straight. No problem. Walk straight and look for a sign with the number 5. No problem! I walked straight for a long time...no number 5. I decided to ask someone for help. What was that noise coming out of the mouths of these Chinese people?! It was certainly not anything I had heard in any of my three Chinese classes! I decided to keep walking. I kept walking and then I saw it! A big number 5! The sign was pointing downstairs, so I took an elevator with my luggage down a level. I walked out of the elevator, expecting to see the train station. No train station here. Hmm... A Chinese man asked me, "Where are you going?" in Chinese (There it is. I had heard that one before!). I told him I needed to find a train headed to Nanjing, but that I needed to exchange money first. He told me to follow him. I told him I didn't have any money to pay him. He told me he would take me to a bank closer to the train station to exchange money because it would be much cheaper than exchanging money at the airport. I was understanding! I checked my feelings to make sure that I felt good about following this guy back up the elevator and into his car. I felt fine. Well, as fine as I could feel given the situation. :) The taxi driver was named Chen Gong, and he quickly became one of my heroes for the day. He was really talkative and patient with my language abilities. The first question? I should have known. Smiling, he asked me if I had a Chinese girlfriend? I smiled back as I reponded, "No, no, and NO!" :) We talked about everything from Arnold Schwartenager to Yao Ming, from my brother-in-laws to Chinese food. I was grateful we were chatting, because his driving in downtown Shanghai was the most ridiculous display of driving I have ever seen in my life. Crossing four to five lanes simply by honking his horn and sticking his arm out the window was typical. There was even one point where we were stopped in the middle of the highway, and we were surrounded by three cars going in the opposite direction. He didn't look concerned. After about thirty seconds, those three cars and a couple of scooters crossed in front of us, leaving an open lane for us to get off on the correct exit to get to the train station. How grateful I was for the prayers of a loving mother and father! Before we got to the train station, he took me up to a bank and I exchanged money. After an hour of constant conversation and crazy driving, we arrived at the Shanghai train station. People were everywhere! It looked like the Times Square of Shanghai. I thanked Mr. Chen for his help, payed him the taxi fee, and started towards the sea of people (ren shen ren hai) in front of the train station.

Arrive at the train station. Check. Next step. Find a train to Nanjing. I had gotten this far and honestly it had been a rather enjoyable ride so far. Two-and-a-half hours later, I would be safely in Nanjing. Everything was going according to plan. It was just after 4 p.m.. I had been up almost 24 hours (minus of course the 12 hours of sleep on the plane). I followed a crowd of people into the train station, but as far as I could tell the next train didn't leave for Nanjing until 8 p.m.. An old lady, seeing the tall, white kid with two pieces of luggage staring blank-faced at the train schedule, saw an opportunity to make a quick buck. She asked me where I was going? I told her "Nanjing" as I walked past her. I knew she wanted money. She told me I should take a bus. I told her that the train would be faster than the bus. She said the bus would be cheaper. Knowing that the next train didn't leave for almost four hours, I asked her how long the bus ride would be? She said three hours. It was four. I checked my feelings again. I felt okay about following her to the bus station. As we were walking, she kept saying something to me. I thought she kept saying something about "shang xiao fei." "Why would she be telling me that she wanted to get on a small airplane?" I guessed she was trying to tell me she wanted me to give her money so she could ride on a small airplane. It took me a minute or two. It clicked. She wasn't saying "shang xiao fei", she was saying "xiang xiao fei!" She was telling me that she wanted a tip for helping me find the bus station. Nice one, Ben. Nice one. I bought my bus ticket, tipped her 10 yuan ($1.40 well spent!) and got onto the bus. Okay, a little change in gameplan. Swap out the train for a bus. No problem.

Another guy and I were the only people on the bus. Little did I know that this man (Mr. Zhou) would be my hero #2 of the day. We exchanged an awkward head nod and an even more awkward smile. We took this smaller bus (the driving was so ridiculous as to rival the taxi ride of the morning!) to a bigger bus station. I was fast asleep soon after getting on the bus. I hadn’t eaten breakfast, lunch, or dinner, but I think the anxiety of traveling by myself in a foreign land overcame my hunger. I woke up after three hours, and I noticed that the bus was stopped and everyone was filing off the bus. We were stopped on a dark road with only a few lighted restaurants around. Surely this was not Nanjing! I didn’t know why we were stopped, but I realized that the driver was going to get something to eat. It was dark, I was tired, I didn’t know where I was, and I was the only Caucasian on the bus. I could tell I was beginning to feel lonely. I just wanted to get to the hotel. I think it must have been pretty obvious that I was in need of a friend, and two men began talking to me. One of them was Mr. Zhou, and the other one was a college student named Rune Li. It was difficult for me to understand them at first, but they were patient with me and eventually we could communicate without great difficulty. When we got back on the bus, Rune sat with me and asked me questions about my feelings on everything from the passing of the “Pop of King” (I couldn’t help but appreciate the Chinese grammar), Obama, gun control, education, etc. He told me that he was a music major at a university in China, and he had me listen to some Michael Jackson and Bon Jovi on his phone. Good taste. :) As we were listening to music, this lady came back and started talking to me. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand what she was saying. I tried to understand. I prayed. I tried to understand after I prayed. The lady was getting frustrated. I apologized to her and told her I didn’t understand. Mr. Zhou could hear the exchange, and he called the woman over to him. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it looked like he indicated to her that he would take care of whatever she was wanting. After she walked back up to the front, I asked Rune what she was asking. He said she was asking which stop I needed to get off at. Haha I had no idea! Nanjing? After a couple of minutes, Mr. Zhou motioned to me to follow him. Before I knew it, the bus had dropped Mr. Zhou and I off on the side of a dark highway, and Mr. Zhou grabbed one of my pieces of luggage and started walking. I checked my feelings to see if I felt okay about following Mr. Zhou down this dark highway road. I felt okay about it. We walked down an exit, and Mr. Zhou stopped. He waved down a taxi, told the taxi driver where I needed to go, waved to me goodbye, and kept walking down the road. I couldn’t believe how friendly and kind he was! I couldn’t help but thinking he was my guardian angel for the day.

After a 15 minute taxi ride, I arrived at the hotel. I told the taxi driver to wait while I went in and asked if there were any vacant rooms. There were. I was relieved. I paid him the taxi fee, got my luggage, walked into my room, and immediately fell on the bed. I had made it! Even though my day had gone relatively according to plan, I couldn’t be more grateful that I had arrived in Nanjing safely. It was just another example to me of how a loving Heavenly Father had been watching over me, and I was so grateful for the people who had helped me along the way.

So here I am...in China! I can’t believe it! I don’t really know what to think. I have absolutely no idea what to expect from this semester, but I know that I will give it my very best. Here we go!