OKC to Blue City, 10.30.06-11.01.06

All I wanted was to be home. I had been away for more than two weeks and was ready, with proper visa in hand, to get back into life here as quickly as possible. I wasn’t feeling as settled as I wanted to before I left for the US, so I wanted to get back and get through the adjustment phase as soon as possible.

I didn’t have the ticket for the last leg of my travel from Beijing to the Blue City because Air China said they couldn’t issue an e-ticket and there wasn’t time for them to mail me a paper ticket to the US before I left. There are multiple flights a day so I didn’t think getting it when I arrived would be a problem. I was scheduled to arrive in BJ in the afternoon and I hoped to get on an evening flight to the Blue City.

The first delay came in Chicago. I got off the plane from OKC and scrolled down the departures screen for Beijing…no gate assigned and blinking words DELAYED. I would be starting my overseas journey 4 hours late already.
Other than being late, the flight wasn’t bad. I got in some good reading and our in-flight entertainment included a Josh Lucas flick.

We arrived in BJ about 4 hours late. It’s now almost 8 pm so I’m a little worried now that there won’t be any seats. After picking up my luggage (a cart full of it this trip) and going through customs I make my way to the Air China Counter. They sent me to a different Air China counter. This counter told me there weren’t any seats available but that I could get on the stand-by list. I ask where to go to get on the standby list and the Air China lady directs me to check-in counter F. I wait in line at counter F where the worker there tells me it’s not the right line. I go where she tells me. I wait in line again. I get to the front only to be told I can’t fly standby if I have luggage. That would have been nice to know 3 counters and lines ago.

I push my cart of luggage to Hainan Airlines to see if they might possibly have any flights that for whatever reason didn’t show up on the Air China computers. They have a flight at 9:30 pm the next day. I go back to Air China to ask again if there are ANY other options…that’s a negative. The first flight available is 9:30 pm the next day.
At this point, I just won’t accept the fact that I am going to have to spend a night in Beijing. I called some friends here to see if they had any suggestions, but they reasoned with me that staying the night is the only option.

I’m still not ready to settle. I go to the travel help desk to ask if there are train tickets for the overnight train. This would have gotten me there by the next morning, which meant I wouldn’t have had to miss an extra day of work, but I’m not sure how I expected to get myself and more than my body weight of 3 pieces of luggage through the train station, on the train and then off again. I asked anyway…no tickets. Not from any of the train stations…no hard seats, no soft seats, no sleepers…nothing.

I know now I’m going to have to stay the night and not be able to get home for at least another 24 hours. I sit down on a bench across from a Westerner wearing full Buddhist monk attire. I just needed a break from lines and counters before I braved the hotel reservation center. I call one of my friends from the basketball team who lives in BJ to see if she wants to hang out tomorrow during my unplanned stay. She invites me to just come to her house and stay. I normally wouldn’t have imposed on her and her family, but I think we’re good enough friends that it’s ok and I was almost at a cultural breaking point. The plan is for me to call her when I get a taxi and she will give the driver directions to her house.

I make my last trip to Air China and grudgingly purchase my tickets for the next day. I get in the long line of smoking Chinese men to wait for a taxi. I am so thankful for my friend’s graciousness, but still just want to be home.

When my taxi pulls up, we load my stuff and get in and call my friend. He doesn’t know where her house is based on her description, and I’ve never been there so I’m no help to him. We’ve already loaded all my luggage, so I’m unwilling to get out and wait in line again for another driver. My friend has her mom call my phone so that she can give him better directions. This at least gets him started, but he is frustrated and angry with me that I don’t know where I'm going and keeps grumbling under his breath. “Your friend doesn’t live in the city. I know everywhere in the city, but I’ve never been to that suburb before.” “Another driver may have been better to take you to this place.” “Why don’t you know the way to her house?” “If I drive all the way out there, I’m not going to be able to find anyone to ride back so I’m going to lose money.” “Why didn’t your friends just come to the airport to pick you up?”

I listened to his complaining for awhile. I finally decided to verbally answer him. When I started speaking the sentence out loud, I felt my chin quivering with the first few words but by the end of the sentence my words were a full-on blubbering, sobbing mess. “Because I didn’t even know I would be staying here tonight. I don’t want to. I want to go home. But there aren’t any flights or trains so I have no way to get home so my only option is to stay at my friend’s house, ok?”

I have never in my life intentionally used tears as a form of manipulation to get my way, and this time also was unintentional, but in this case it did evoke a shift of attitude from my taxi driver.

“Please stop crying. I’m so sorry. Don’t worry. Please stop crying. I promise I will get you to your friend’s house safely. I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ve just never been to that suburb before, but if we can’t find it, we’ll just call your friend again. I promise I will get you there safely. Please stop crying.” I didn’t really fully stop crying the whole drive but at least I was a little more under control than at first. At this point I was sort of half crying, half laughing that I just had a breakdown in a taxi over such a small thing. But it happens and you have to take them as they come. So, I just let the tears and sniffles flow for the half hour drive. He would just look over and say, “I promise we’ll get there.” We did indeed get there safely. My friend met us at the gate of the complex and I jumped out of the taxi and hugged her and told her how happy I was to see her face.

We had a great time together and her family was so gracious to me. We stayed up late talking and catching up and then slept in the next day…well, she did. I watched China versus Azerbaijan women’s volleyball on TV. We went to a market the next morning and then had Beijing Duck for lunch. We had great conversation over lunch and then just relaxed and watched TV the whole afternoon. No visit to any Chinese person’s home is complete without dumplings, which we had for dinner before they took me back to the airport that evening to catch my plane.

I arrived in the Blue City about 10:30 and couldn’t have been happier to look through the glass wall across from the baggage carousel to see that a wonderful friend was there to pick me. She helped me into the taxi, to my house, carried my stuff up the stairs and into my apartment. Ahhh, finally. The heat came on while I was gone and it was nice and toasty and just as I remembered. It felt so good to be home at last.