After a fun, freezing two weeks, my mom took off from Beijing; it was great traveling with her. We haven't had an adventure for quite a while; we had a mini-adventure in Maine, visiting Acadia National Park; but, the last time we had an extended vacation was when we went to visit my sister in Seattle and popped over to Vancouver. On the brighter side, my friend Letizia, was coming the same day as my mom left. She, my other 2 friends, Kevin, Jenny and I planned to travel for a little over 2 weeks, making our way, overland, from Beijing to Hong Kong.
After seeing my mom off, I checked in the status of Letizia's flight and found out that it was delayed for 3 hours, so instead of getting in at 5, she was supposed to arrive at 8pm. It was only 10 am, so I figured I would head back to Beijing and return to the airport in the early evening.
On the bus, I was pretty psyched because I met a guy from Valencia, Spain and was able to practice my Spanish, or rather see how much Spanish I had forgotten. I kept hitting myself because a stream of Spanish would leave my lips but then Chinese would randomly pop in and I would get flustered. I was a little concerned for the guy since he spoke NO English and did not understand Chinese at all. Granted you can point and motion but its pretty difficult to maneuver around the city not knowing Chinese or English.
Speaking of maneuvering around the city, around 5, I was on the bus with Kevin and Jenny, when all of a sudden I got a call on my cell and was shocked to hear Letizia's voice, telling me she was lost somewhere in Beijing. I instantly felt horrible because I thought that I had misunderstood her flight status and she had arrived on time, also because she was lost. Its daunting to be lost in a city where you can't speak the language and not understand any of the signs around you.
She found a super nice guy to help her and call my cell phone. We managed (as in Jenny and the nice man) to figure out that we were serendipitously heading to the same area on the bus. So I went to the bus stop and knew the licence plate of the bus she was coming in on.
I waited and waited and finally the bus came. I ran up to the stream of people exiting and I saw a girl with long brown hair with her back turned to me so I started screaming out "Letizia! Letizia! Turn around Letizia! I'm right here!" Everyone was giving me odd looks and finally the girl turned, and it was not my friend.
After seeing my mom off, I checked in the status of Letizia's flight and found out that it was delayed for 3 hours, so instead of getting in at 5, she was supposed to arrive at 8pm. It was only 10 am, so I figured I would head back to Beijing and return to the airport in the early evening.
On the bus, I was pretty psyched because I met a guy from Valencia, Spain and was able to practice my Spanish, or rather see how much Spanish I had forgotten. I kept hitting myself because a stream of Spanish would leave my lips but then Chinese would randomly pop in and I would get flustered. I was a little concerned for the guy since he spoke NO English and did not understand Chinese at all. Granted you can point and motion but its pretty difficult to maneuver around the city not knowing Chinese or English.
Speaking of maneuvering around the city, around 5, I was on the bus with Kevin and Jenny, when all of a sudden I got a call on my cell and was shocked to hear Letizia's voice, telling me she was lost somewhere in Beijing. I instantly felt horrible because I thought that I had misunderstood her flight status and she had arrived on time, also because she was lost. Its daunting to be lost in a city where you can't speak the language and not understand any of the signs around you.
She found a super nice guy to help her and call my cell phone. We managed (as in Jenny and the nice man) to figure out that we were serendipitously heading to the same area on the bus. So I went to the bus stop and knew the licence plate of the bus she was coming in on.
I waited and waited and finally the bus came. I ran up to the stream of people exiting and I saw a girl with long brown hair with her back turned to me so I started screaming out "Letizia! Letizia! Turn around Letizia! I'm right here!" Everyone was giving me odd looks and finally the girl turned, and it was not my friend.
I was super worried and I got a call from her fiancee telling me that she was at some bus station. I had no clue what to do, but after a while, I figured, what the heck, I'll just take a taxi to a few bus stations and look for her. I was envisioning the scene out of "Adventures in Babysitting," where the friend is stuck at the bus station, although Letizia doesn't wear glasses and would not try to pet a "cat."
But alas, I went to two bus stations, both of which were closed. After 5 hours of waiting and searching, I decided that I should just head back to the hostel and thinking of a new plan. In the back of my mind, I was freaking out, thinking that she got kidnapped and sold into some sex slavery ring.
Tired, hungry and freezing, I returned to the hostel and when I was mumbling for the room key, the receptionist asked if I was expecting a friend and pointed to a name on the guest list. I was SO SO happy, there was Letizia's name. I ran to her room and gave her a HUGE hug.
Letizia had managed, after a few hours, to find some girls to call the hostel so that they could write down the name and address in Chinese characters because no one understood the English and pinyin (the phonetic spelling of Mandarin).
It turned out she had changed her flight, but I didn't check my email to know that she was coming in earlier than expected. On top of that, she was waiting for me on the other side of the street that I was stationed at, because she ended up taking a taxi and got off on the other side. I think that this is one of those situations where we'll look back and laugh. ha...ha...hmm, not yet that humorous.
Anyhoo, I can't get enough of the Great Wall so the next day we went to Ju yong guan, which has a pretty steep incline. I'm just in complete awe of the wall and love the physical challenge of climbing it. Beijing Part Deux pictures aca
Jenny, Kevin and Letizia
Letizia acting out what happens if you over-exert yourself and you have heart and/or brain disease.
