I felt like a cow...

...in the Shenyang train station.

We traveled to Shenyang to renew our passports because it's the nearest location from Harbin. After a sucessful trip to the US Consulate, we found ourselves at the train station waiting to catch our ride home. The thing about this train station is that it's under construction and the waiting room is a temporary building made with Styrofoam wall panels. If you imagine a large rectangular "barn" for all the waiting passengers, your mental image would be pretty close.

We waited with the other passengers in the barn behind a metal fence for our train to arrive. When the time came to board the train, metal gates opened, everyone rushed through and scurried to find our train's platform. As the metal gate clanked open, I remembered that distinct sound from my childhood. I was reminded of my days on the ranch watching my dad work with cattle. The metal fence clanking open is exactly the same sound. And then the thought of cattle rushing through an open gate to the next pen made me laugh, except I was the cow rushing through the open gate to catch my train home.