On the train to Hami

The day train

We wake up at dawn this morning. I get the luggage ready with dad to be well prepared for the train departure. My things ready, I go down for breakfast and then go meet the driver. I get in the car and wait. Then everyone arrives. I notice a new piece of luggage that is like a long tube and dad tells me that Ghazi had the calligraphy delivered. At the station, I pass easily through the luggage inspection, although I notice that all the liquids are taken then mixed to see if we made explosives! After fifteen minutes we leave with our entire luggage and dad is reassured because they didn’t confiscate anything. We go into the train and towards our seats, since it’s not a night train there are no sleeper cars. But we’re not around the same table and we ask two people if they can change places with us. At first they refuse but since the controller helps us, they finally accept. I sit and listen to my iPod Touch. After an hour, a young man comes and speaks English to us and asks us what we would like to eat. Life settles itself in the train: Yang Dong sleeps in his seat, I talk to a young man about basketball, dad and Liu Jia order. Back from lunch, I begin to write while dad goes for a walk in the train. When dad returns, he tells me there’s a Chinese-speaking Indian a few rows behind us and that he’s a student at MIT. I go talk to him and I learn that he doesn’t speak Indian and that he learned Chinese when he was living in Malaysia. At around 16:00 we arrive in Hami and dad suggests to the Indian that he comes with us. He accepts. Dad asks Liu Jia and the Indian to find us a hotel around the train station.