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Published: August 2nd 2010
Me and Maruyi
After running around Beijing AirportIt is 11:22pm and I am currently at the Shanghai airport hotel in one piece with all of my luggage. The big question everyone asks is, "was it a smooth journey?" I wouldn't say it was a smooth journey, but it was definitely an interesting one because it was a little different. After today, I am a strong believer in fate. I think there is always a reason for everything, but you'll see what I'm talking about later. The flight from SF to Beijing went by a lot faster than I thought. Come to think of it, the final exam that I took for Pharmacokinetics on Friday was 5 hours long, today's flight was 11 hours long, and 5 x 2 = 10. If you do the math, the time it took to finish my exam on friday took about half the time it takes to fly from San Francisco to Beijing. Lately I have been so used to sitting on my ass in the library for 12 hours straight studying for pharmacy school finals, so the 11 hour flight wasn't so bad. I was really excited because the middle sit was empty so I had extra leg room. The first
movie that they played was Planet 51 which is a kids animated movie. I looked around and I was the only one with headphones on watching the movie. Eventually they ended up cutting it off. The next movie was on some country singer bullshit, so I decided to fall asleep. When Air China serves meals, they ask you what you want in Chinese and luckily I was able to get what I wanted without looking like a complete dumbass. The airline stewardess thought I was a local and skipped me when they were passing out Arrival Cards, so I had to flag her down to get one. The next movie that they played was Lovely Bones which is about a 14 year old girl who gets murdered and observes the lives of her family and her murderer. It was quite sad. I wanted to go to sleep after that, but they started playing IP Man 2, a Kung Fu movie. It was super entertaining, so I decided to watch it instead of sleep. Once we got closer to arrival in Beijing, I was concerned about how I would get to the next plane in Beijing. Apparently we had to go
through a maze to get to the domestic terminal. Luckily when we got off the plane, an employee for Air China flagged Shanghai passengers down and gave each and every one of us a sticker and special tag. We followed her all the way to the immigration booth. While I was walking, this asian girl from the flight comes up to me and asks me if I was going to Shanghai. I was caught off guard and didn't know if I was supposed to say "dui" or "yes". I decided to say yes. Turned out she was an American named Maruyi, visiting her relatives. We talked a little bit and I found out that she was from Pinole and just finished her freshman year at Bryn Mwar. I had my business cards with me so I gave her one and told her that we could meet up when we're back in the states, and possibly in Shanghai. She forgot to fill out her arrival card on the plane so I waited for her after I passed immigration. The Air China lady started pointing and neither of us had no idea what she was saying. I'm going to take a break
right here and say that if you take the Air China flight from San Francisco to Shanghai Pudong, with a stop in Beijing (same flight number and everything) and you get to the place with the stairs that goes to the trams and that Air China lady is pointing and saying jibber jabber and shit and you don't know where to go; DO NOT TAKE THE TRAM. I repeat. DO NOT TAKE THE TRAM. Stay long the wall and go in that little hallway on the left.
The rest of the group was out of sight. We remembered that the we possibly had to take a tram to the domestic flights, so guess what we did?...WE TOOK THE FACKIN TRAM. After we got off the tram we realized that we were in the wrong terminal and we tried to tern back but got denied. We went through a maze of asking security guards how we could get back to where we came from. Finally, after a lot of asking around and walking, we were able to get back to where we came from and we found that gate that we were supposed to go to. It was hidden around
the corner from where the Air China lady was pointing. Unfortunately the glass door was already closed so a female security guard came over to open it. I tried to explain to her that we were part of the CA986 group and needed to get on the flight, except in more of a retarded way. I think she got a kick out of it, but she was really nice and helped us. After that large adrenaline rush, Maruyi and I were reunited with our group. We decided to take a picture of ourselves in order to remember our journey. When we got on the plane, there were empty seats so we decided to sit together. Maruyi had this suitcase full of sculptures (heavy bag), so I helped her put it in the overhead compartment. She said "wow you are pretty strong for a pharmacy student". I lol'd. Maruyi was a pretty cool girl and we were able to have pretty good conversations.
We arrived in Beijing and walked to the baggage claim. Maruyi and I waited for our luggages and eventually everyone was gone except us. Just me and her. An airport employee asked us where we came from and
I told we came from San Francisco. She basically said that since our origin was international, they sent our bags to the international baggage claim in which we had to go outside and around. I remember telling Maruyi that maybe us meeting was fate. We were meant to get lost in Beijing so we would end up sticking together, because in the end, we would need each other to find our bags, since we were the only ones left at the baggage claim. We both laughed. We had to go through a "staff only" door and go through another small security check to get to the international baggage claim. A guy asked us where we came from and we said San Francisco. He pointed at two bags off to the side; one being mine and the other was hers. I was confused because my bag had tape around it, but it was mine. Afterwards she was able to find her relatives and that's when we parted ways. We probably could not have gone through all that without each other, but it was a good experience and I made a new friend along the way. Hopefully I will get to see
her here or back in the states. I was able to make it to the airport hotel without any problems. It was easy to find. The first thing I did when I got to the room was take pictures and then take a shower. I opened my suitcase and realized that the tape was there because the front zipper broke for the pocket that had my lacoste shoes in it. My shoes were still there (thank the lord), but i don't remember bringing a cover stick and a lip pencil???? That shower felt awesome. Time for me to go to bed, so from here I'm going to say ZAI JIAN.It's good to be back.
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