A special someone…

So it has been a while and I have been a little distracted but rest assured I haven’t forgotten about you guys. In my last post I said that there wasn’t much news to share which was a small lie. As you may have guessed from the title of this post I have met someone here in China however at the time of my last post it was early days and I didn’t want to jinx anything. Even now I am cautious of how much to share in this most public of domains, a problem our parents would never have encountered. However, in keeping with the theme of this blog it would be difficult to not mention anything about it. Besides which I am happier than I have been before in China and wanted to share this with you all.

She is not Chinese, much to my father’s relief, but in fact American. Her name is Margaurita (aka Maggie) who you may recognise from some previous posts. We first met at the Christmas show last year but didn’t see much of each other as she works at a school the other side of town. We met a few more times at various parties but it wasn’t until we met up for milk tea in the park one Sunday afternoon that we got a chance to get to know each other better. After meeting up a few more times the attraction was undeniable and the rest they say is history. Although life is never that simple is it ? Margaurita got 3 weeks off for Spring Festival compared to my scheduled 8 days and had already planned a 2 week trip to Beijing and Xian with a friend of hers that was coming over to visit from the states. They were due to leave on sunday 7th February, a day when I had 3 classes at school so wasn’t even going to be able to say goodbye.

I had resigned myself to only seeing her again when she got back on the 21st February but on the Sunday irrational thoughts were beginning to take over and I started wandering if I could make it to the train station in Hangzhou after class and before her train left. I found out her train left at 5:30, I finished class at 3:15 – it was going to be close. I packed away my things as quickly as I could after class and together with 2 other teachers (to share costs) headed over catch an illegal taxi, the only way I’d get to the station in time as buses would take too long. Once in the taxi I thought I better just check she was at the main train station and not the north or east station while at the same time keeping it a surprise that I was on my way. As we got to the other side of the bridge with the train station in sight the traffic came to a complete standstill. At this point I was thinking I would have to tell Margaurita I was on my way and not to board the train lest I miss seeing her altogether. Just as I was about to jump out of the taxi and run to the train station the taxi driver, apparently sensing my impatience, did a U-turn across 2 lanes of traffic and we were moving again. A minute later I was running across the road, ducking and diving through the throngs of people all travelling to their home towns for Spring Festival only to come up against increased security with barriers up and guards checking for tickets. Alan was unphased staying true to his belief that foreigners can get away with anything in China and we mimed our way through the first barrier but still didn’t know where Margaurita was. After checking a few of the waiting halls, trying to establish which one was for Beijing and with time running out I phoned Margaurita and told her that I was at the train station trying to find her. She was clearly surprised and stayed on the line as we both made our way closer to each other. After making my way upstairs, I then saw her just coming out of the station entrance and made my way towards her although she couldn’t see me against the backdrop of all the people. Then after what had been a frantic last hour for me we were together and it was totally worth all the effort. They are not wild about PDA’s in China, and you don’t see a lot of it around but we threw caution to the wind as we had a mere 40 mins together before she had to finally board the train. Alan and Jess, my co conspirators, were there hiding in the wings and captured this snap of Margaurita and me at the train station.

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