The Road Home

I'm balancing on a six inch wide wall of concrete that cuts through the rice field we have to get across.  I readjust my precariously placed backpack - there's about 200 feet left to go.  I'm on my way home from a visit to my friend Celia in middle Taiwan.  We're going into the city by bus so I can catch my train.  The last time I made this trek I had no seat on the train, and this trip was no different.  I say goodbye to Celia and hop on a car to try and find a good standing place.  I end up in the middle of the aisle with other poor pilgrims who didn't purchase their ticket in advance.  I'm next to two young girls who are pestering each other to be the first to say 'hello' to me.  I don't speak a lot of Chinese, but I could gather that much from the giggling and backward glances.  With half an hour left to my trip the conductor stamps my ticket and finds me an empty seat next to three college students - one of whom was a foreign exchange student in America for ten months.  I struggled to communicate with another woman questioning me in Chinese about the cram school teacher in front of us... "No, I don't know him."  "Yes, he works at a cram school."  "Yes, he is probably from America too."  Once I finally got to the station I switched trains at, I made a query as to where my train would depart from..."EH?" the lady asked me... "To Chaojhou!" I repeated... a college student came to my rescue and said "I'm on the same train, it leaves in two minutes from the platform over." We started booking it towards the bridge and all of the sudden my hand was taken by the lady I had first asked..."Follow me! I'll take you too, but we have to run!!"  All three of us practically flew up the three flights of stairs to the bridge, across the bridge and then down three more flights of stairs to the platform.  Me and the student jumped on with just enough time for me to wave to the lady and thank her.  When the conductor came around, my new friend wouldn't let me pay for my ticket adjustment... after a short conversation, I found out he has a sister living in Illinois and hopes to travel there someday.  Once he got off at his stop, a soldier-turned-postman-from-the-east-side came and interrogated me as to what I was doing here... he gives out the customary exclamation when he finds out how old I am and asks what on earth am I doing teaching English in a foreign country at my age.  I laugh and for a brief moment, wonder myself.  I've been traveling for about five hours - met a trainload of new people - and I'm a little glad to get off at my own  station, where I'm picked up by my team and go home...tomorrow is a full day of teaching.