For any African American person who thinks of the abbreviation "CP" connected with time, the meaning is clear: colored people time. Although the labeled "colored" was assigned to African Americans during a time of extreme racial prejudice/discrimination, I've found that the phrases "CP Time" is both applicable and acceptable as long as it's used by Black people about Black or colored people. The phrase simply refers to a stereotype about a tendency for Black people to be late for things. Since I've been living in China these past few moths, I've noticed that this stereotype can also apply to Chinese people based on the fluidity of how time is viewed in the East in general and China especially. That being said, I've begun to refer to the popular phrase "CP Time" as Chinese People Time. I've found that both "CP" times make for a disastrous combination. . .
It all started on Thursday morning (January 10th) when my friend Jess and I have set off for our travels. Our first destination was Beijing. (We're in Xi'an now and will travel to Hong Kong next. Then I will go to Japan and we'll meet back up in Thailand.) After much discussion about what time we should book out train, we decided that booking the 8:28 D train- one of the faster, nicer, newer trains from Changchun to Beijing that takes 7 hours- so we could have more time to hang out in Beijing. Our plan was to go to bed early and leave an hour before our train left. Let's see how things actually happened.
It all started on Thursday morning (January 10th) when my friend Jess and I have set off for our travels. Our first destination was Beijing. (We're in Xi'an now and will travel to Hong Kong next. Then I will go to Japan and we'll meet back up in Thailand.) After much discussion about what time we should book out train, we decided that booking the 8:28 D train- one of the faster, nicer, newer trains from Changchun to Beijing that takes 7 hours- so we could have more time to hang out in Beijing. Our plan was to go to bed early and leave an hour before our train left. Let's see how things actually happened.
Wednesday night:
11:10pm- started watching Lottery Ticket 1ish am- Lottery Ticket went off
1:20am- 1:50am- made sandwiches for our trip, talked with my boyfriend Sam on Skype, and helped Jess clean
2:15-5:40am- slept
Thursday:
6:30am-7:15am- Jess woke up, made breakfast, and we ate7:25am- left Jess's apt to catch a taxi 7:55am- FINALLY caught a taxi
8:23am- taxi driver tells us to get out of the taxi because it's his first day and he doesn't know where the train station is
8:24am- I'm annoyed and cold, standing outside watching our last hope of catching our train drive away
8:36am- FINALLY catch another taxi-- this driver calls a friend to ask how to get to the train station section to trade tickets
8:43am- we arrive to the train station
9:13am- Jess pays the ¥4 difference for new tickets after successfully negotiating with the ticket master for a non-standing ticket
9:20am- we found a place to sit and play card games until our train arrived
10:40am-11:02am- boarded another D train
5:47pm- arrived to Beijing, found our hostel, grabbed some food from one of the Muslim restaurants, and went to sleep on a soft bed
Since we both have been to Beijing several times and had done most o the touristy things there, we went to the Beijing Opera an then decided to hang out with friends. We went to Haidian Christian Church on Sunday (which is one of my favorite places to go in Beijing), ha lunch with the 21st Century teachers and hung out with my Zimbabwean friends at Renmin University. It wast long before it was time for us to board out next train that left at 8:43pm to Xi'an, so we left to find a Subway restaurant to have food to eat on the train. This turned out to be quite the adventure but after 2 hours underground, we finally had our sandwiches. We also ended up making our train in the nick of time.
11:10pm- started watching Lottery Ticket 1ish am- Lottery Ticket went off
1:20am- 1:50am- made sandwiches for our trip, talked with my boyfriend Sam on Skype, and helped Jess clean
2:15-5:40am- slept
Thursday:
6:30am-7:15am- Jess woke up, made breakfast, and we ate7:25am- left Jess's apt to catch a taxi 7:55am- FINALLY caught a taxi
8:23am- taxi driver tells us to get out of the taxi because it's his first day and he doesn't know where the train station is
8:24am- I'm annoyed and cold, standing outside watching our last hope of catching our train drive away
8:36am- FINALLY catch another taxi-- this driver calls a friend to ask how to get to the train station section to trade tickets
8:43am- we arrive to the train station
9:13am- Jess pays the ¥4 difference for new tickets after successfully negotiating with the ticket master for a non-standing ticket
9:20am- we found a place to sit and play card games until our train arrived
10:40am-11:02am- boarded another D train
5:47pm- arrived to Beijing, found our hostel, grabbed some food from one of the Muslim restaurants, and went to sleep on a soft bed
Since we both have been to Beijing several times and had done most o the touristy things there, we went to the Beijing Opera an then decided to hang out with friends. We went to Haidian Christian Church on Sunday (which is one of my favorite places to go in Beijing), ha lunch with the 21st Century teachers and hung out with my Zimbabwean friends at Renmin University. It wast long before it was time for us to board out next train that left at 8:43pm to Xi'an, so we left to find a Subway restaurant to have food to eat on the train. This turned out to be quite the adventure but after 2 hours underground, we finally had our sandwiches. We also ended up making our train in the nick of time.
