The trip from Chicago to Hengyang was long and hard. I left my home in Woodridge, Illinois at 3:30 pm on Wednesday, May 12. I was actually leaving an hour later than I should have. I thought my flight left at 6:20 p.m., when it actually left at 5:18 p.m. When I arrived at O’Hare Airport the line to check in was so long that I thought I would surely miss my flight. I had trouble with my two bags, as they were both overweight. One bag was for Edwin Myers, a teacher that lives in Hengyang. The cost for the overweight bag was $200.00! I didn’t really know what to do about it. It wasn’t for me or I would have left it behind, so I just turned my head and paid it. For my bag, I simply took out a few things and placed them in my carry-on bag. It was still a few pounds overweight, but I think the attendant was feeling sorry for me at that point so he let it go. While he was looking at his screen I tucked the removed items back into the same bag before he picked it up and sent it on down the belt. He then asked me what time my flight left. When I told him he simply said, “You’ll never make it.” I said a quick prayer as I weighed my options for rescheduling. I figured if I was going to do this work then God was in control of this event. “Wait!” he said as he looked back at the screen, “It was just delayed for 30 minutes. You should be fine. Good luck.” Luck had nothing to do with this delay. After slowly getting through security, I raced to the gate as they were just about finished boarding. I was the last person to board, but I had an assigned seat so I walked right on, sat down and exhaled. I tried to calm myself down, but I was a wreck! Again, I asked God to take control of the situation. He did! The flight to Los Angeles seemed particularly long, but I’m sure my anxiety had more to do with that than the actual flight time of four hours. I knew that I also had a fifteen-hour flight ahead of me and I’m sure that fed my anxiety. After arriving at LAX and finding my Harding student team members, Carey Fraley and Sarah Barbour, we got a bite to eat at the airport and waited out the four-hour layover. Will Drennen and Daniel Ganus soon joined Carrie, Sarah and me for the rest of our journey. What was really surprising was that I ran into a couple of my Chinese Harding students, Rei and Cecilia, at LAX and I had a very pleasant meeting with them! The check in and screening lines were crowded and very Asian like. There was a lot of pushing and shoving. We finally boarded the big plane to Guangzhou. The flight was packed and the seating space was very small. I was very uncomfortable! The flight was actually an hour less than advertised, but the 14 hours was pretty grueling to be that uncomfortable. I napped a little from time to time, but very little. We arrived at the Guangzhou airport just before dawn on what was now Friday morning in China. I just lost Thursday altogether! We went through Immigration, had to pick up our luggage to go through Customs, and then checked them back in for the flight to Changsha. Unfortunately, the bag that I carried for the Edwin Meyers was lost. Yes, it was the same bag for which I paid an extra $200 to get there! After filling out the appropriate paperwork for home delivery we waited another three hours or so for our next flight to take off. We were able to access the Internet at the Guangzhou airport. The Guangzhou airport was a new and very modern airport. After I boarded the last airplane I tried to get a quick nap but I don’t think it actually happened. Somewhere along the line, after I boarded the last flight, I must have dropped or misplaced my boarding and ticket packet, because it is still nowhere to be found. I must now go through the process of acquiring a replacement ticket for my return flight. When we arrived in Changsha and acquired our bags, a University of South China (USC) official met us at the airport. Her Chinese name is Fu Huali, but her English name is Sunny. Most Chinese people who speak English have a selected American name. Sunny first took us to lunch and then we were off to Hengyang. The food was very good but we were just beginning to experience the Hot and Spicy food of the Hunan province. For some reason I thought that USC was closer to Changsha than it is, but it was another two-and-a-half-hour drive. I was so ready to arrive at our destination. We finally arrived in Hengyang sometime after 3:00 p.m., almost 35 actual hours after I left home. We got to our campus apartment, checked in, met everybody, and visited for about an hour and a half. WOW - It’s a whole new amazing world here! It was a long and hard trip, but being here seemed to make it all OK! I stayed awake as much as I could before finally crashing about 4:30 p.m. on what was Friday here... I was planning on only taking a nap and then getting up and going to dinner with the team and the Myers. They all told me they knocked and knocked on my apartment door to go to dinner, but they couldn’t rouse me… and I slept until the next morning - for about 13 hours! My jetlag was conquered. Next Post>>>
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AuthorSteve Shaner, also known as Xie Yeye, is a professional story teller that delights in traveling to meet new and old friends. He can be contacted at shaner.steve@gmail.com. Blog ContentsMay 12-14, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010 Sunday, May 16, 2010 Monday, May 17, 2010 Tuesday, May 18, 2010 Wednesday, May 19, 2010 Thursday, May 20, 2010 Friday, May 21, 2010 Saturday, May 22, 2010 Sunday, May 23, 2010 Monday, May 24, 2010 Tuesday, May 25, 2010 Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Thursday, May 27, 2010 Friday, May 28, 2010 Saturday, May 29, 2010 Sunday, May 30, 2010 Monday, May 31, 2010 Tuesday, June 1, 2010 Wednesday, June 2, 2010 Thursday, June 3, 2010 Friday, June 4, 2010 Saturday, June 5, 2010 Sunday, June 6, 2010 Monday, June 7, 2010 Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Wednesday, June 9, 2010 Thursday, June 10, 2010 Friday, June 11, 2010 Saturday, June 12, 2010 Sunday, June 13, 2010 Monday, June 14, 2010 Tuesday, June 15, 2010 Wednesday, June 16, 2010 Thursday, June 17, 2010 Friday, June 18, 2010 Saturday, June 19, 2010 Sunday, June 20, 2010 |