It's been quite a weekend. As if our giant city wasn't exciting enough, we took a 2 night, 1 day trip to the capital city for some shopping. It was a very productive day there, as I not only got some great things to take home, but they have pearls there for really low prices. I got a few strands of different colors and a necklace with mother-of-pearls, as well as an old necklace with some gorgeous mixed silver beads, all for really low prices. I've brought those back here to use with the jewelry-making internship, so I'm really excited about what these girls will be able to make with them.
The journey there and back was the adventure, though. We thought we had an express train there, making it a 5 1/2 hour ride, but we didn't, so it ended up being about 8 hours. We paid extra for the A/C train, but the A/C was only on for the first 45 minutes or so and never came back, so it was pretty darn hot. When the A/C was on, the ceiling leaked, so we rigged up some feminine pads onto the ceiling to hold the water. For real. It was ridiculous. We also paid for 4 seats but they put us in a room that was only for 3, and after a short time with 4 crammed on the bench one of us went on the floor, which made it a little better. We also thought there would be food or at least water, but there wasn't. We could jump off at some of the stops to buy things, which is how we got water, but you have to hurry because the train will start moving... Haha. It was an adventure, for sure. After 8 hours in the 4 by 6 foot box, we were extremely grateful to have arrived. Surprisingly enough, it will be one of my best memories. It was crazy, but fun.
We were kind of dreading the ride back, but mostly because it left at 7:50am. We were sure it was an express train, so that would help, and our seats would hopefully be in the main cabin with other people and more room to breath. We were only halfway right there. Before the train even started moving, we found out that it wasn't express and that we had another 8 hour ride ahead of us. This one was a lot more fun, though. We had brought water and breakfast foods this time, and they had vendors selling things all the time. The A/C was on the whole time, and it's amazing what a difference that makes! There were several families with kids on there, and most of them were very well behaved. There was a family in front of us with what we think were twins, brother and sister, probably around 2 years old and they were precious. Em and I had a lot of fun. We also talked a lot, and it's amazing how much faster time goes when you give up trying to sleep and just do something. I only got about 4 hours of sleep last night (I saw a cockroach just before midnight and those of you who know me well know that there's no chance of me getting to sleep for hours after that) so I'm thoroughly excited about an early bedtime tonight. Visiting that city made me appreciate a lot of things here a lot more.
It was a fun trip, but I was glad to be home. The traffic is bad here, but it's worse there. Mosquitoes are annoying here, but they were crazy there (and in our tiny box!) The beds were nice there, but they're no good if you have cockroaches and can't sleep. People were nice there, but they're family here. Food was great there, but, well, yeah. The food was pretty awesome. They had an A/W. =)
It was a great weekend, but I'm glad to be home.
Keep yarping. There are a lot of reasons.
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