The Train

There is a handful of us standing around waiting for the train.  Subjects of note: old Chinese dude and two Australians.

Chinese guy very polite, lets me on the train first.  Then he sits right behind me, and one of the Australians sits across the aisle from me.

The Chinese guy is learning English.  Here to visit Family.  Oooh he’s a talker and really difficult to understand, but given he’s learning English, he’s doing a great job at it.  He is chatting at me and the Australian across from me.

Then he starts up like, “You Australians are beautiful people.”  The Australian thanks him and I just don’t respond.  Then he starts in on how slender Australians are, and when he visited the United States, they were all big (meaning fat).

I’m cracking up, the Australian is looking at me because it is clear from my accent that’s where I am from.  The Chinese guy doesn’t have enough experience to realize I’m not Australian.

So I said, “You know, I am from the United States.”  I don’t think that sunk in right away, because he then started in on Brits and how they were also slim.

He then starts talking about how in China everybody wants to learn English.  Then he starts telling me how great my English is, laying it on, telling me how much money I could make if I went to China to teach English.  I think he’s trying to make up for calling me fat.

We discussed where we wanted to go.  Me to Central Station, the Chinese guy to some suburb somewhere.  Aussie told him it would take an hour on the train to get where the Chinese guy was going.

The other Australian, no idea where he had been hiding, but he was close, because he knew our conversation.  He gets up, walks over to the door, looks at me and says the next stop is Central Station.  He also knew which hotel since I mentioned earlier.  He said he was going right by there and asked if I wanted to walk with him.

Well that answered my other question: What was I going to do when I got to central station?  Both of the Aussies told me that getting Uber there would take longer than walking.

We get off the and Guide-Aussie says he wasn’t sure he would want to go all the way to that station with the Chinese guy, he wouldn’t stop talking.  I kept turning away from the Chinese guy after he was done talking because it was so hard to figure out what he was saying, but that didn’t deter him, non stop talking all the way to my stop.  He was actually really nice and just wanted to talk, but it was so difficult!

Aussie-Guide was really nice; guided me through the ticketing process for the train, out of the station, gives me a little history of things as we are walking through the city.

A block from my hotel he gave me some instructions and went off on his way.  Since I know none of their names, bet that is the last I ever see of any of those guys.  Nice to bump into some nice people right off.