“God Winks” on the train火车上的“上地眨眼”

A while back, I came across the term “God Winks” from a cousin. It was in reference to moments when you are feeling down, are in need of a pick-me-up, or then something small turns your whole day around. In these instances, she wrote, “isn’t it funny how God winks at us right when we need it.”

During my travels in China, I have come across my fair share of times “God Winks,” reminding me how lucky I am to be here. The other day as I was heading home after a long weekend flying to and from Hong Kong and visiting a friend for a Chanukah party, I got on the train that would take me home and was planning on sitting back, relaxing, and reading my book when instead, “God winked.”

As I plopped down onto my seat, tired, but happy to be heading, I glanced next to me. An older lady was my seated next to me, staring at me curiously as I was getting myself situated. I smiled politely before turning back around, the lady, however, clearly had other plans.

Noticing immediately that I was a “外国人” (foreigner) she began asking about where I was from and what I was doing in China. I mumbled an answer, too tired to try carrying on a conversation and really just wanting to finish my book.

Unperturbed by my disinterest, she asked a couple of more questions and quickly came to the conclusion that my Chinese is terrible (in all fairness, I did warn her…). For a while we sat quietly. She looked out the window while I worked on my lesson plan for Monday.

A few minutes into my lesson planning, she looked over and asked bewildered, “Why do you write with your left hand?” I admitted that I had no idea why. She seemed to think this was funny, and observed for a while as I wrote out basic outlines for my third-grade class on fruits. Deciding that she was not done talking to me, she pulled out a photo album of her new grandson. She proudly showed me the pictures of an adorable baby boy in all sorts of cute poses while I “oed” and “awed” and softly told her how 可爱 (cute)！She rambled away in Chinese about him and I caught a word or two here and there. After the album was through, she promptly pulled out her phone and began going through more pictures.

A couldn’t help but laugh to myself as I thought about how love and pride for children and grandchildren transcends every culture, nation, and people. People, when given the chance, love to talk about their adorable families. After exhausting the pictures on her cell phone, she asked me to see my family. I pulled out my iPad, hoping that I had few stored on there to show her. Unfortunately, all the pictures I had of my family were nowhere to be found. My companion repeatedly asked me to see pictures of  美国 (America) and 我的家 but I could only show her pictures that my mom had sent me recently of our home at Christmas and of my cat.

We talked and looked at pictures until my stop in Suzhou. I smiled at her and said goodbye, thinking I need to allow myself to always be open to these sorts of experiences. It is these encounters that really make me love China. Even though I had been utterly exhausted and in no mood to befriend anyone, “God winked” and turned my whole day around.

前一段时间，我从一位表姐那里学到一个单词叫“上帝眨眼”。它的意思是当我们感觉情绪低落时，我们需要一个帮助或者一些细小的却能帮助我们反转整天情绪的东西。“这真的很有趣，上帝会在我们需要的时候眨一下眼。”她说道。

在我在中国旅行的途中，我也碰到了这种“上帝眨眼”的时刻，让我觉得自己在这里非常幸运。那天，从香港参加完一个晚会，我坐火车回家。我上了火车，准备坐下来，好好放松，读一本书，这时上帝对我眨眼了。

我坐在椅子上，非常疲劳，但是很开心马上要回家了，我不经意的瞟到我邻座的人。她是一位上了年纪的老人，她好奇的盯着我。我对她礼貌的微笑一下就打算转过去，但是那位女士却另有打算。

注意到我是一个外国人，她开始问我从哪里来，到中国做什么。我咕哝的回答她的问题，我太累了而不想继续谈话，只想把我的书看完。但她对没有在意我的不感兴趣，问了我一些问题后得出了我中文不好的结论。我安静的坐了一段时间，写我周一课程的教案，她就望向窗外。正当我写教案时，她困惑得问我：“为什么你用左手写字？”我承认我也不知道为什么。她好像觉得这很有趣，当我为我的三年级学生学习水果的课程写大纲时，她一直在旁观察。她并不想和我结束谈话，就又拿出她的孙子的相册。她骄傲地向我展示她孙子的可爱姿势的照片。我用我不太好的中文一直跟她说“好可爱”。她用中文讲关于孙子的事，我只能听懂一两个词。看完相册她又掏出手机，给我看里边更多的照片。

我情不自禁的笑着，因为我觉得人们对孩子，孙子的爱是相同的，无论哪个民族，文化的人。人们只要一有机会就喜欢向别人谈论他们可爱的家庭。看完她的手机后她问我有没有我家人的照片。我拿出我的ipad，希望里边存了一些照片可以给他看。但是很不幸，这里没有我家人的照片。我反复翻阅但是只能给她找到我妈妈在圣诞节发给我的我家的照片和我的猫。

我们一直聊天看照片直到我到了苏州要下车。我对她微笑地说再见。我觉得自己应该多有一些这样地经验。这些事让我真的爱上中国。尽管我已经精疲力尽没有心思交新朋友，但“上帝地眨眼”改变了我的这一天。