Packed

Have I told you that Henry doesn't like people.  He likes his mom and his dad and on every second Thursday from 11 to 12 he likes me.  But everyone else can go jump off a cliff.  A tall cliff.  With jagged rocks sticking out.  And rabid coyotes chasing you as you run towards the edge in case you chicken out about jumping.  To win his affections I take him on grand adventures to the beach to throw rocks at the waves and the marina to throw rocks at the fancy ships and that time I talked our way onto a tour bus, which he later threw rocks at. 

Today's adventure:  the train.

My original plan was just to go onto the platform and watch them go by but I knew that he would want to get on once he saw that it was an option so I bought a ticket (for approximately $.50 - I should write a post on how insanely cheap everything is here.) and we hung out on the platform and threw rocks onto the tracks until the train pulled up.  As soon as we got on I realized that it may not have been the best time for a train adventure.  Because it was rush hour.  The train was packed.  I can't even think of a good metaphor for how packed we were.  Sardines don't cut it.  But here are two examples:

1.)  We were standing next to a group of school girls and at one stop about 20 businessmen squeezed in (using wizarding magic I assume because I didn't see any room for them to begin with) and pushed us all back and one of the girls ended up in the armpit of one of the buisnessmen.  There was zero room for her to move and she just kept giggling at the situation - which was cute.  We got off at the next stop with the girls and the men all had to raise their arms and form a tunnel for us to walk through to the exit.

2.)  When we finally got off the train and watched it pull out we saw just how crammed in we were.  The doors couldn't close because there were people bursting out, holding on to the bars outside the train.  One kid was literally hanging from one of the bars, his feet dangling about 10 feet above the ground as the train sped off.

So it was tight.  But here's the amazing thing - Henry, with all of his wishful thinking of people jumping off cliffs, was a champ.  He ate it up.  He kept pointing out the window and saying, "Train!  Train!"  He doesn't like people touching him.  At all.  But he was mauled in the train and took it like a pro.  I could not have been prouder of the little guy.  I think I'm going to try to get him onto one of those fancy ships next. 

*****

I'm off to the desert tomorrow for three days and then Rome for six.  So it's going to be light on posting around here.  I promise to have lots of stories and pictures of gelato when I get back.