After the nightmare that was remodeling my bathroom (which still isn’t complete), I was finally ready to come back to the states for some relaxation and time with my family. The first step was getting on my flight in Beijing. I had a China air flight that left at 8:00 PM from Beijing. I decided to take the train up to Beijing from Shijiazhuang.

The problem was that the train times were not ideal. There was a 2:20 PM train that got to Beijing around 5:10 PM, but I was worried that with Beijing’s horrendous rush hour traffic that I wouldn’t make my flight. The next earlier train was at 11:00 AM, getting to Beijing at around 2:00 PM. This meant that I would have 6 hours in Beijing before my flight left. I would be safe, but have some time to kill. This made the most sense to me.

My teacher Mary and my maid Wu Jie met me at my house around 10:00 AM. Wu Jie brought some jian bing for breakfast, which we ate before leaving for the train station at around 10:40 AM. Getting into the train station was, as usual, fun. There were 200 people trying to fit through the only door out of 3 that was open. Mary and I found our seats on the train without problem, but when I moved the bag of the guy sitting next to make room for mine on the overhead rack, he through a big fit and got all pissed….ahhhh yes…..this is why I need some time in the states. Instead of moving his bag 6 inches to the left, he prefered that I crush it under mine. Go figure.
The train was completely full, and there were people standing in the aisles. I have still not understood why tickets without seats cost the same price as those with seats. I managed to sleep a bit on the train, and the 3 hours to Beijing passed quickly.

Getting a cab from the Beijing train station took 30 minutes. The system there is even worse than the one at the Shanghai airport. There is an actual line, but only 1 exit from the line. The cabs pull up, 3 people walk back to the first 3 cabs, load them, and then another 3 people from the line of hundreds take their turn.  It takes 20 seconds for the first cab to leave, 40 seconds for the second one to leave, and 60 seconds for the third one to leave.  Lather, rinse, repeat as my patience wears thin.
From the train station, we went to a hotel that had a restaurant recommended by my friend Leo. When we got there, however, they had closed for the afternoon. DOH! We walked across the street and managed to find a REALLY good restaurant. I can’t remember the name of it though.

After lunch, we headed for the airport bus which ran every 15 minutes. It cost 16 RMB a person ($2 US) and took just over an hour to get to the airport. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time, but once again found myself in a grossly understaffed area. The line to check in for my flight had over 100 people waiting, and 2 agents working. There was a first class area with 3 agents and no clients, a group area with 2 agents and 1 client, and a special services area with 4 agents and no customers. The kicker, however, was that behind the 2 agents checking in my flight, there were about 9 employees just watching and chatting. GREAT PRODUCTIVITY china airlines!  For each person in the line, it took about 8 minutes once it was their turn.  I couldn’t believe how slowly it went.  That is probably why the flight eventually left late.
When I finally got to the front of the line, the agent spoke such poor English that I couldn’t even follow what she was trying to tell me, let alone convey anything to her. I finally just started speaking in Chinese, and things got done right away.  Very strange for someone working a flight headed to Los Angeles, consisting almost entirely of Americans.
Security wasn’t bad and about an hour and a half later, I boarded the plane. The first thing I noticed when I stepped onto the plane, however, was that it was EXTREMELY hot. The 747 was full (300+ people) and didn’t have an air conditioner that they could use on the ground. Now for those of you that don’t know, the temperature in Beijing can reach nearly 100 Fahrenheit during the summer, which is not comfortable at all. The flight got started late, which meant I sweated profusely for over an hour in that metal tube. Grrrr. My clothing was dripping wet by the time we got airborne, and in no time, the cabin had cooled to about the temperature of a meat locker (the perfect climate for my now wet clothing).

I had the aisle seat of the middle section, and sat next to a cute Chinese kid. Before I knew it, he was joking with me and helping me with my homework. We watched 1 movie during the roughly 13 hour flight.  It was called Firewall and stared Harrison Ford.

The movie wasn’t too bad, my homework wasn’t too tough, and before I knew it, we were making our approach to Los Angeles …….