The Train and the Weasel

The Train

We arrived in Xi'an at 9:00 am. 11 and a half hours of sheer bliss on the worlds worst train.
At least we know for next time...

Stu and I had this jar of peaches on the train that we hadn't opened yet. We passed it back and forth forever trying to open it and the guys across from us were watching us and laughing at us struggling.
Finally people from the other rows were watching and we gave it to a man across the aisle who tried, failed, hit it from the bottom, failed again and passed it to the guy beside him who also tried and failed multiple times. By this time probably 7 people were watching and waiting, wondering if we would ever open the impossible jar. After passing it back to the first guy and him admitting defeat, the other guy put kleenex over the top, twisted, and low and behold, opened the jar!
A woman in our aisle clapped!
The highlight of the trip. (It was pretty dull until that point, clearly)

Getting off the train, our next task was to find the person who was going to be picking us up and taking us to our hostel.
We wandered around for a while wondering where the main exit was until finally realizing that
"Subway Out" meant "way out"... there wasn't even a freaking subway! Lost in translation?

You can't even begin to imagine the amount of people leaving that train station or the obscene amount of stuff some people can carry with them. Massive burlap sacks, HUGE cardboard boxes, luggage, etc as people crammed their way toward the door. The hallway was super wide and yet we were moving at a snails pace, getting pushed and passed, the door looking like a mirage:right in front of us and yet SO far away.

Once we finally got through those beautiful glass doors, it was out into the open area of chaos trying to find our driver (among LOTS of other people holding up signs)

We have never been so bombarded with people asking us if we need a taxi or a hotel.
This guy approached us and asked us if we were staying in 'youth hostel'. I said 'which youth hostel?' (to test him.) and he said 'youth hostel. I am picking up people and taking them to youth hostel'. I knew that clearly it was some sort of trick because the person was going to be holding up a sign with our names on it.

We looked around and around and no one was holding a sign for us. We were tired. We didn't want to find our own way to the hostel, so we tried to find a phone because thankfully, though all the plans were made, we had the phone number for the hostel. (thank you stuart!)

We also knew that we were about 1/2 hour later than we thought we would be (we thought the train was going to arrive around 8:30 and it ended up being closer to 9:00) and that there was a chance that they had come and gone.

The Weasel

A skinny and quite weasely looking guy came up to us and said 'Hello'. Irritated after all of the people trying to get our attention before escaping the madness of the train station entrance, I replied 'Goodbye!' He laughed and began to follow us. 'Are you looking for a hotel?' he asked. 'No,' Stuart said. 'We have a hostel.'
'Bye' I said.
He just laughed again.
We were at a convenience store trying to communicate that we would like to use the phone they had with little success (not many people are english speakers around here...) and the guy that was talking to us before said we could use his cell phone.
We were kind of desperate so we just used it. It didn't work.
We tried calling the hostel and after a couple of funny sounds, assumed that it was busy. I saw the weasel guy on his cell phone right before we called, so I think that he dialed the number right before us so we couldn't get through.
This was getting really irritating and freaking me out a little. Why wouldn't he just leave? And why the frick did we use his stupid cell phone?
We called again, this time making sure that the weasel wasn't using his cell phone and got through.
They then told us that they had been waiting for us for half an hour and that the girl had just left. Shoot!
The told us they would meet us at the bus stop and go back with us to the hostel. We thanked them, sounded great. It was only three stops and we knew which bus to get on.
The weasel told us over and over and over that he would take us. We told him that it was okay, we had it from here, and basically to get lost.
We got to the 603 bus a few minutes later. It had started moving and we just jumped on. (We just wanted to unload our stuff and get on with our stupid day!)
And who got on behind is?
Dr. Weasel himself.
I was getting a little scared. Why wouldn't this idiot leave us alone?
He was pretending to look at his map and got really close to us and started talking again.
'I just learning englih. I want to practise my english' he said.
First off, his english was pretty much perfect. Secondly, that is one of the things you first learn when you get to China, if someone is telling you that they just 'want to practise their english' stay away from them. It's part of some way to sucker you in to being like 'oh, yes! talk to us' and then getting scammed.
When he said that I said 'Then go to school.'

He kept insisting he would take us to the hostel.
We told him to leave us alone and that we were done talking to him.
We were very clear, yet he wouldn't stop.
Of course, when he got off the bus at our stop, I was getting REALLY aggitated.
We couldn't see the person that was supposed to pick us up and I was just praying for her to come, and quickly!

The guy said again 'I just want to practise my english. Come with me. I'll take you to your hostel. Is very nearest to here.'
He was getting more forceful.
'Look,' I said, 'Leave right now. Just walk away. We don't like you. We don't want to talk to you.'
He just laughed, said sorry, and stayed where he was, insisting he would take us.
'We have someone that's coming to pick us up.' Stu said.
'No, I'll take you.'
'No. We DO NOT like you. Turn around. Go away.'
'I'm just trying to practise my english.'
'We do not care about you. We don't care about your english. GET LOST!'
He walked away for a moment, taked on his cell phone and came back.
'I just talked to your hostel.' he said. 'They told me to take you.'

Now I was almost getting scared. What if he did phone our hostel and tell them that we didn't need to be picked up. He had the number.

I pretty much yelled at him now that I didn't like him and that he needed to shove off.

He was furious. 'I thought foreigners were nice, you are not. You are making bad impression, very bad impression.'
Stuart said, 'You are giving us a bad impression of locals!'

The weasel (almost yelling now) said 'I AM YOUR FRIEND! I WANT TO HELP YOU! I'LL TAKE YOU TO YOUR HOSTEL! I WANT TO HELP YOU!'

uh....

'IS VERY NEAREST.' (He pointed to the right)

Stuart and I left (as the girl had for some reason not arrived yet) and went into a cell phone store and used a phone.
The guy in the cell phone store was really nice and when he was trying to dial he couldn't figure out why it wasn't working (the reciever cord wasn't connected to the base) it was pretty funny and made me a little less stressed and jittery about the weasel situation.

The girl was on her way!

Pretty much right after we left the cell store we found her, the weasel was gone, and we walked safely to our hostel.

WOW! What an experience. Yikee!

(ps he pointed that our hostel was down the road to the right... it was in the opposite direction)