I could not help laughing while having dinner last Thursday I came back from Clinton Outlets with many of my colleagues. And I laughed at the thought of a group of colleagues of mine and me, most of us middle-aged women, and two young Yale Summer Session Chinese boys getting upstairs and downstairs either by taking a lift or by climbing the stairs several times, trying to catch the train back to New Haven at about 7 p.m. or 8 p.m, in spite of the fact that a tall black young man told us that we should take our train back to New Haven at 8:05 p.m. At Track 1.
The other three colleagues, Christina Deng, Yongling Zhang, Ming Yi, were puzzled at my sudden burst of laughter. They did not see any sound cause for my constant and uncontrollable laughter.
“Rich, why did you burst into laughter? What is so funny that makes you laugh so?” Doctor Zhang and Christina Deng asked.
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| The bridge to get across to get to track 1 from track 2, or vice versa |
“That black guy must have got a lot of fun from seeing us rushing between Track 1 and Track 2, upstairs and downstairs madly, each carrying some bags in their hands, ” Doctor Zhang said with a little laugh. I remembered the broad smile of the black guy when he came back to catch the train from Track 2.
All of us laughed at our foolishness and madness. It has become a source of fun.
But at the time when we got upstairs and downstairs, we did not feel it was so funny. We were filled with anxieties and fears. We were all worried that we might miss the 8:05 p.m. train back to New Haven, the only train left for us to take to get back to our American “Home”. We were afraid we could not get any other traffic means to get us back before darkness fell and we had to stay at Westbrook Station the whole night.
Last Thursday we had many activities and our teachers Siggy and Carrie both kept us company. We were first taken by a yellow school bus to the Shoreline Beach to see the sea, which lasted on half an hour, and then we went to one of our teachers’ home, where we visited her newly purchased house and ate chips in her grass-covered garden. We also did some hiking in the forest, breathing in the fresh air, contributing blood too the local mosquitoes for the multiplication of their population, listening to birds singing, and expecting to meet a deer while walking in the flat mountains.
At about 3:15, we were on our way back.
But no sooner had we got on our way back than Xiao Ma’s wife caught sight of the road sign on the left side of the road and shouted: “Clinton Outlets is just in front of us. Who would like to go to Clinton again?”
Many colleagues said yes.
I also said yes, in spite of the fresh memory of utter exhaustion after the first visit. The reason for a second visit to Clinton Outlets is that I saw Xiao Ma wear a light blue T shirt with many English words beautifully designed in front of the chest. I wanted to buy such types of T shirts for my adult son and my husband. ”
Xiao Ma talked with Teacher Siggy and Siggy talked with the driver. The driver went out of his way to drop us would-be shoppers off at the entrance of the Clinton Outlets.
The majority of the colleagues got off the bus, and two Yale Summer Session Chinese students also followed us off the bus.
As soon as we got off the bus, we made an agreement among us: We shall meet here again at 6 p.m. and then we go to Westbrook Station on foot to catch the 7: 05 train back to New Haven.
The walk to Westbrook Station takes at least 20 minutes. The young Yale Summer Session students wanted to go back with us, as they had not come here before and did not know where the nearest train station was. They hoped that they could get back to the campus for the supper at Yale School dining-room.
We dispersed ourselves by going into different stores.
By five o’clock, I met He Jia on the left porch of the outlets. She was pulling a suitcase and she told me that she had paid $180 dollars for it. She repeatedly told me that the suitcase was the best in quality in the US and she bought it for her daughter, because she was going to enter the high school in fall.
Then we separated.
I met Doctor Zhang in the central part of the outlets. She said cheerfully that she had bought two pairs of Jeans for her son, and was going to buy a pair of Nike shoes for her son.
This was the first time she came to outlet. But she was walking towards the shoes store.
But at 5:30, I met he Jia again and she warned me that we should meet at the entrance at 6 and we should go there as soon as possible.
We two stood outside the outlets and waited for others to come.
Soon, the two young boys came, followed by Suzan Wang, Tong Feng, Suzan Zhou, Xiangling Qiu and Sunny. Nine people had come to the designated spot, but there were still three absent. They all belonged to my apartment-renting group.
I couldn’t imagine what had prevented them from coming here on time. More than 15 minutes had passed and yet they did not appear. I asked Suzan Zhou to give Christina a phone call, to demand their immediate appearance. They promised, but a good ten minutes passed and none of them appeared. It was impossible to find them, as the shoe store is so large.
The two boys said, “it is impossible for us to get back to the campus by 7:30.”
“It is impossible for you to have your supper at school.”
I felt very guilty for the two Chinese boys’ failure to get back to the campus on time for the supper, though it was not my fault.
“Come to have supper with us tonight, that will save you money,” I gave them an invitation.
“Having supper outside the campus does not matter, what matters is that we have to finish our homework and have it printed out and hand it in tomorrow morning.”
“What about calling for taxi services from New Haven? ” Someone suggested.
“But even if we called for two taxis, there is one surplus. And calling for three taxis would be too wasteful of money for the extra one, 60 yuan for a single person, that would be too expensive.” Suzan Wang said.
It seemed that I was the surplus. The others were in groups. They were either campus group members or apartment group members.
My apartment group members were still strolling in the shoes stores.
“It is not right to we take a taxi home and leave the other three alone, it is too late and too few people walking alone is not safe,” Suzan Wang said.
“And the three others don’t know how to get to Westbrook Station. We did not take a train here last time,” I said.
Just then we saw a bus come, we all got onto the bus, and asked the perhaps near 60 year old driver to wait for our three colleagues.
She driver was patient, and waited and waited.
Then, the three appeared together in front of the bus. They were walking at a leisure pace.
One of us got off the bus and called them to hurry up. They did not seem anxious about not catching the bus.
When they finally got on to the bus, two of them gave their explanations for their delays.
Yingzi Deng said, “I have used my credit card to pay for the pair of shoes and the I found both the shoes are one-sided, not a pair. It took me a long time trying to find another shoe to match the one I bought. It was the shop assistant who helped me find the other shoe, otherwise I would be still in the store. ”
Doctor Zhang said: “When I examined the shoes after the payment, I found out that one shoe is bigger than the other, and I had to find one of the same size. If I had not paid the money, I would come out early.”
The bus driver was not in a hurry. She had to drop off different passengers at different places along the route. And outside one store, a couple with a baby in a wheel cart had done their shopping and had been waiting outside the store for the bus to arrive.
When the bus did arrive, the man put his bicycle in front of the bus, which surprised me a lot. I thought the bicycle had partially blocked the driver’s view of the road ahead. They got on the bus and then got off the bus at the third bus-stop.
So it took us quite a lot of time to get to Westbrook Station.
The moment we got off the bus, we saw a train passing by. 
We were told by the driver to wait for her bus to move away before we crossed the road. And when we were about to cross the road, several cars and motors came towards us. We stopped for a moment and the motor drivers stopped and asked us to go first.
But the moment we reached the opposite side of the road, the motor driver starte dtheir engines and the loud noise produced gave several of us quite a start. I felt my heart shrink involuntarily.
“People with heart diseases will get a heart attack due to the terrible noise.” He Jia said with displeasure on her face.
When we reached the entrance of the station, Suzan Wang said, “It’ is 7:10. The 7: 05 train has gone. We have to take the next train to New Haven. ”
We entered the Station. We cannot call it a station, no waiting room for a rest, no clerks or office for clerks could be seen or found.
We followed Suzan Wang to the pole supporting part of the roof and found a notice behind a glass, indicating the train service time and track numbers. Only two tracks, as a matter of fact, Track 2 on the side we were now staying and Track 1 on the other side of the double track.
I read the information about the Track Number and said we should get to the opposite side, to reach Track 1, as was suggested by the notice.
But Suzan Wang said authoritatively, “No, we should stay here. Last weekend we got onto the train at this side. I can’t be wrong.”
“But the notice said it was Track 1 that we should go. ” I pointed out the specific content to her.
“The notice might be outdated,” she said confidently.
I wanted to prove that we should go to Track 1, I saw two people sitting on a lounge opposite us, but they could not hear me across the double track.
“Attention, Passengers. Please stand behind the yellow line, a train’s approaching,” an announcement was made through the loudspeaker.
I was not sure whether it was an actual human being who mad it or it was just a recorded human voice.
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| The safety line |
We could not see any single worker in sight. My colleagues decided that it was not spoken by an actual human being.
Soon, a train came and stopped at the station. We were eager to get on to the train. But for the sake of avoiding taking the wrong train, I asked the woman worker who had just come out of the door, “Excuse me, is this train to New Haven?”
“I don’t know New Haven.” the woman replied.
I was shocked at the woman’s reply.
How could she not know there is a New Haven in the US? It has Yale University, one of the first rate universities in the world.
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| The Black guy who told us to to cacth the train at Track 1 |
“We want to go to New Haven.”
“You’ll have to go to Track 1. The train to New Haven stops at Track 1. The next train to New Haven is 8:06. I am going to New Haven, too. ”
The train started to take departure, and soon it gathered speed and disappeared out of our sight.
We were all disappointed that the train was not to New Haven. We were eager to get back to New Haven.
We also felt blessed that we had asked the woman worker on the train to make sure the train was not to go to New Haven. “If we had got on the train without asking, we would be taken to somewhere unknown to us, and then we would have to try to find a train back to New Haven. What a bad situation we would be thrown in!” We all felt happy at the thought and began to find the way to the get to Track 1.
One of the colleague found the lift to the second floor.
Some took the lift, me included, but others climbed the stairs and then we all crossed the bridge and got to the lounges along Track 1.
While we were waiting at Track 1, several trains went past at high speed without stopping at the station, then a slow train appeared and approached the station.
“Oh, this train looks like going to New Haven, let’s get across to track 2 again to catch it.”
All the colleagues and the two young students began to stand up and ran as fast as they could to get the lift or rushing upstairs.
I was slow in movement, caught between the desire to get onto the train and the dear to be left alone at the station. I was almost up half of the stairs when the train passed without stopping at the station.
I realized that it took us some time to reach Track 2 from Track 1, and we could not have caught the train even if it was to New Haven. The train would not stop to wait us to get onto it. Our effort to catch a wrong train proved futile.
We all got back to Track 1 again.
Soon after we sat down, Suzan Zhou took out the railway schedule paper and said, “We have made a mistake. There is another train at 7:30”.
Suzan Wang took a look at the schedule and said: It was &:30ma.m, not 7:30 p.m.”
“Oh, I did not see clearly. I thought it was the p.m,” she smiled apologetically.
“Let’s stop rushing here and there, but wait patiently for the 8:06 p.m. train, ” Wang said to her.
Now that we were settled for the 8:06 p.m. train, we sat down peacefully and patiently for that scheduled train to come. And to kill time, Suzan Wang suggested we show what we had purchased at the outlets. Of course, she was the first to take out the merchandise and showed to us.
She brought out a new pair of sunglasses and put them on, but I concluded that they were not as beautiful as the previous pair she had purchased. So she changed back to her previous one, saying that she just liked the frame of the glasses. Then she took out her newly purchased earrings, dark gray or black, very beautiful and delicate.
She took off the old ones from her ear and put on the new pair. They looked just perfect!
I praised her for her good taste in purchases.
She was glad to hear that, and then took out several T-shirts, “This shirt is for my elder brother.”
“You bought it for your elder brother? How kind of you to do that!” I praised. “It is a must. Do you know who is my elder brother? How many elder brothers could one have in this world?”
“You bought it for your elder brother? How kind of you to do that!” I praised. “It is a must. Do you know who is my elder brother? How many elder brothers could one have in this world?”
The opportunity for Chinese common people to go abroad, especially to visit the most powerful country in the world, is rather rare. It is considered a very lucky thing. All the family members, either nuclear family or extended family, takes great pleasure and pride in the event.
My parents and my daughter-in-law’s parents gave me a total amount of 2000 yuan.
I tried to decline their gift of money, but without success. It gave me great pressure. I don’t know what to buy for them. To choose what to buy is not only a physical labor, but a mental torture. I was afraid the clothes I had bought for them was not to their taste in color or a little too big or too small. Really hard choices to make. It is an exercise in aesthetics as well as a proof of love. One has to use his or her imagination, too.
I showed mine. And the others followed.
Time that once seemed very long now passed very quickly due to the showing off.
The black guy who had been idling away for some time came back to Track 1 with apparent cheerfulness.
And at 8:06 the slow train for New Haven arrived.
A black young man came to open the door of the last compartment that stopped in front of us.
We asked him if it was the train to New Haven and got a positive answer. We all felt relieved and got onto the train.
As soon as we got seated the black worker came to collect our money for the train service, $5.45 for me and the other three sitting together, and the other fellows were charged $6 for the same distance, by a black woman for the same distance. When we encouraged them to get back the overcharged money, the black woman said she was right in charging $6. The three of us sitting with Suzan Wang cracked jokes about the cause of the black man's undercharge--Suzan Wang's charming looks made the black man happy and he gave us a discount.
We cracked jokes Chinese about the great happiness of the two railway workers for having such a large group of company aboard the train and bringing them money and them company, making them free from loneliness and boredom.
At 8: 35, we got off the train at State Station, New Haven.
As soon as we reached home we four house-renter group immediately busied ourselves with cooking supper.
When we finished the cooking and sat down to supper, I felt totally relaxed and had the energy and time to reflect upon the shopping and train-catching experience. I felt quite amused by what we had experienced at Westbrook Station.
Being aliens and being women had caused us a lot of anxieties and fear, which, in turn, had caused us to do a lot of stupid things at the station and brought us so much fun upon reflection.
Of course, our distrust of the kind black guy was also the cause of the fuss we had undergone.
Of course, our distrust of the kind black guy was also the cause of the fuss we had undergone.
I wish I had been a fly on the wall of the non-station! A truly amusing sight, I'm sure.
回复删除Thank you for your encouragement. It seemed you got up early in the morning.
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