Andrea wore a backwards baseball cap to keep her hair from falling in the sink while washing her face. After she's done brushing her teeth, she stuck her toothbrush in the back pocket of her jeans. There was an ease about her that was so undeniably un-Chinese that I found myself staring. When I struck up a conversation with her on the train from Beijing to Shanghai, it began with a statement in Chinese and ended with a question in English. We talked for a good fifteen minutes before introducing ourselves. Of the fifteen minutes, we spent most of it gazing into the moving darkness outside the window, at the hollow buildings and abandoned roads. The occasional night wanderer would stumble by our train car hallway, and we'd press our stomach against the cool glass to make way, still carrying on our conversation.
She talked about China as if it were a lover, a very physical being. The "affair" began, she said, back at home in Guatemala, when her family frequented Chinese restaurants. Her eyes lit up when she talked about home, how her whole extended family would crowd the screen when they talked on Skype, how the Chinese in Guatemala knew how to dance and move like a Latin-lover, how she was the black sheep in the family, never thought she'd end up here, and love it here, and extending her stay.
In Beijing, she took cooking lessons from a grandma in the Hutongs. She liked a dish that she wouldn't be able to find back in Guatemala, and so she was determined to learn it from the right people. The grandma took her to the market to select all the right ingredients before showing her step by step.
I don't exactly remember why she liked it here so much, but it was evident on her face, an excitement that I wondered might still remain on my own face. Everyday between staring at my computer screen and riding my bike I uncover a little bit more about this place. I'm untying it at the seams and hoping, starving, praying that I can become apart of it cotton and fabric.
I don't exactly remember why I like it here here so much. I figure if I ask enough strangers, I'll know one day.