Pan Meets with David, 6 Homeward trip, and Meet Jenny
Pan Meets with David, 6 Homeward trip, and Meet Jenny
Time can hang heavy on your hands when you are bored, but you feel it goes too
fast when you are happy with something. I had been here for a few days and suddenly I realized it was time for returning trip. It was as if I had just got here. How I enjoyed my stay! Clean city, fresh but cold air, small but warm houses, and sweet people. With so much more to see and to experience, I sure looked
forward to my next visit.
On our way to the KuiTun train station, David and Jane changed their mind and
decided to go to Shihezi for something. That gave us another few hours to be together. It was sure a pleasant incident. We had quite many minority passengers
on the way, and Jane was obviously interested in their language and culture. If she didn't know well how to related to people! With such disarming smile, she
could break ice with strangers within a few minutes, and that's something I had
always been jealous of. They left me at the Shihezi train station. We hugged
each other again. Take care, my dear friends!
The rest journey to Urumqi was eventless. I could feel the cutting chill in the air when walking toward the station exit. There stood two ladies at the exit
scanning the crowd for someone. I didn't have any difficulty recognizing them
because I had seen pictures of Jenny and her mother quite a few times. My little sister had grown into a nice young lady, looking a bit taller than I had expected. They welcomed me home with warmth and offered me a wonderful dinner of XinJiang dumplings. We had a pleasant talk before dinnertime, and it was when that
I learned how poor my Mandarin really was. Frankly I had not expect my Chinese
accent to be so heavy. Well, I guess I could blame my Chinese teachers for that. I had been aware of the difficult situation Jenny had been in for the years,
and our reunion added very much to my admiration for the girl and her parents.
They had worked together for more than two decades to fight the adversities and
to make this miracle happen, a miracle that was based on unreserved love, Job's
patience, and unyeilding perseverance, a miracle that best represented the human willpower. Seeing what Jenny and her dear parents had overcome and achieved,
her English only being a small part of this, could we able-bodied people find it
in our heart to cook up another excuse for our laziness and fickleness?
I hugged good bye to Jenny and headed for the same hostel that was quite near
the airport. The rest of the homeward journey went just as expected, but I should claim to say that HangZhou was the last city I would ever want to go. Wall to wall people and vehicles, crowded streets, nothing had changed in a positive way. And the terrible disorderliness at the train station topped my list of pet
aversions. The waiting room could be said to be the worst in the world. If Dushanzi could be said to be small but nice, HangZhou was the very city that could
be put on the other side. But whatever, I am not about to settle down there so
who cares.
A mysterious land, XinJiang has long remained an enigma to the rest of the world. Seeing is believing; you won't get the true feeling about this land unless
you go there and have a taste yourself. Personally for me, it's always the people, with whom I have long enjoyed this genuine friendship, that count.
The end.
Panpanpan.
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