Maze

"How old are you? You seem very young to be traveling alone." 

...

     It turns out that, it wasn’t enough having complications with the visa, but also I took the worse flights so far. You should know that this will probably end up being a long post. So many things happened in the last 7 days. So let’s start.

Tuesday, May 13th
     Finally could take all the papers to the Chinese Consulate. Thought that it would be possible to get the 24hr service, but it wasn’t like that. After unsuccessfully trying to explain what happened to the lady behind the glass, she just told me “Pick up Thursday morning.” I was supposed to leave Wednesday. That meant changing flights and wasting so much money. Money that I was going to use to go to South Korea. Kept calm as much as I could, and decided to just enjoy the rest of the day with him.

Wednesday, May 14th

It’s funny how, when you less want things like this to happen, they end up happening. See, I had everything planned out perfectly, and falling for someone was not on those plans. I will spend 3 months in Beijing. There was no time for that. But then again things never happen how you want them too. And sometimes that’s not a bad thing. This time, I can’t be happier that things didn’t go as I expected. But plans are plans, and I had to say goodbye (for now) to someone special that day. I created great memories and am sure more will come.

Having to leave later also meant having to look for a new place to stay. That ended up being kind of scary. Every not so sketchy looking hostel with good reviews was booked for the week, and I needed to stay at least until Friday. Found this one that was pretty far, but looked nice enough. Wrigley Hostel. Check-out in the hotel was at 12pm, and the check-in at the hostel was at 2pm. So I decided to head there, leave my bags and walk around. Found a Wal-Mart Express, got my favorite cheap wine and by the time I was back I could check-in. Went to the common room, started drinking the wine by my own. By the 3rd glass I was kind of drunk (light drinker) and some British and a Chinese came in. Incredibly nice people I must say. Played pool with them, had dinner and kept on drinking. Had some free jello-shots at a bar just because I left my cup really clean. By the end of the night I was so drunk, I got to my bed and everything moved around me… and I missed him.

Thursday, May 15th 

Woke up early to get my visa back. The Chinese had to go downtown too, so we took the metro together. Got to the Chinese Consulate, did the line just to find out that I had left my credit card on the back pocket of my other jean at the hostel. Had to go back and get it. While I waited for lunch hour to be over, I booked my flight to Beijing. The cheapest I could find had 1 layover at Guangzhou. Good enough for me. Flights done. Headed back to the Consulate, got my passport with the visa back (never felt so happy) and went back home exhausted. Took a 4 hour nap. Woke up and talked a bit with my roommates. Random person that works in the hostel knocks and invites us to “Wrigley Hostel 1 Year Bar Crawl”. Six bars, one night, free beers. The right thing to do was to ignore it and go to sleep, since my flight was leaving early in the morning. But the girls ended up convincing me (didn’t need much convincing though). It started at 9pm. Free vodka with orange juice. Played some games. Met new people from all over the world. Had some big laughs. But being as responsible as a young adult can be, I headed back by midnight with no more than one drink in my system. Had a perfect goodnight sleep… and I missed him.

Friday, May 16th 

Finally! Woke up early. Took a nice bath since I would be traveling a complete day. Headed to the airport really early. There was no way in Earth I would miss this flight. Got to Vancouver on time. Got my passport stamped (yay!!) and everything went smoothly. Until I got to the gate and found out my flight was delayed. That’s when the whole nightmare started. It got delayed around 2 hours, which meant I wouldn’t be able to catch my next flight in Guangzhou. I was told my bags would be sent directly to Beijing, so that was so confusing. There was a BIG thunderstorm in Guangzhou that delayed all flights. Boarded the airplane. At least I had a window seat. It would be a long 14hr flight to Guangzhou.

Saturday, May 17th 

     You know what’s worse than a delayed flight? A cancelled flight. My flight from Guangzhou to Beijing was cancelled. I was stuck in an airport where no one understood me. But that’s not all. When I went to rebook my flight, I was told I couldn’t do it until I had my bags. So I had to go look for them in the “delayed flights bags”. I got there at 9pm. Midnight stroked and no bags yet.

     Something funny did happen at the airport while I was waiting for my bags. Out of nowhere, people started running in one direction with their phone cameras on and I heard some screaming. Five minutes later all I see is security guards taking some guy in and trying to keep the crowd away. They started screaming something that I can only guess was “FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!” and stayed at the security office entrance for almost an hour. When everyone went away they started fighting again. It was so funny because I couldn’t understand a thing.

Never felt so alone in one place… I missed him.

Sunday, May 18th 

      My bags didn’t appear until almost 3 am of Saturday. The rebooking was so stressful. The English speakers had gone home, so I had to try and explain the situation to people who didn’t understand me. Finally one girl came in and helped. The airline booked me for the earliest flight and paid for a hotel, which I only used to take a shower and nap for 45mins. Then headed back to the airport to take my flight. I had 100 Yuan on from last trip that saved me from hunger. So happy I kept them. Also, the taxi accepted my American dollars. God bless America! (sarcasm right there). 

My host family was waiting for me at the airport. They had colorful papers with my name on that were made by the little girls. The smaller one hugged me and was so happy I was there. The bigger one is a bit shy, so she just said hi. We drove to the house. Their place is really beautiful. The family is really nice. They knew after all that had happened, I would be exhausted, so they let me sleep as much as I wanted that day. My room is comfortable. Just besides the girls’ room.

Monday, May 19th 

      My first day as an au pair officially. Woke up early. Helped the girls get ready for school. Had breakfast. Took them to school. Did nothing until they came back from school at 6pm. The house was so silent. I don’t mind being alone, but I still don’t feel as comfortable here. The aunt was here (she lives here) but we can’t understand each other, so it’s like she’s never here. 

The older girl got sick today, so I just had to play with one. The most hyper and harder to please. But it was nice. At the end of the night she was as exhausted as I was. Can’t wait to get to my bed…

I am too exhausted to continue. That is so far everything that has happened. So yeah… I’ll let you know more about it next week. Until then…

Means

So many conversations in one week and I can't recall any of them to post here. I'll just write what someone special told me yesterday in dinner:

"We'll grow fat together, because I don't think we'll make it to old."

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     Last week was terrible. So much schoolwork to do. I only slept about 2-3 hours a night. I felt like a zombie. On the other hand, it was so hard having to say goodbye to my family, specially to my little brother. Mom told me my grandmother is angry at me for leaving without saying goodbye. It was kind of hard since I had a test every day until I left. Easiest part was saying goodbye to my friends. Not because I don't love them, but because they were really supportive and didn't give me much drama about it. All hard times these last days, so far, have been worth it. I'm in Chicago right now having an AMAZING time while I do the visa process. 

     Talking about the visa... UGH! Nowhere in the Chicago Chinese Consulate site does it say that every paper must be on computer. I got there early. Made #B250. Waiting patiently just so that this not-so-nice lady tells me "We don't accept handwritten papers". Needless to say I was not a happy camper. Walked to the nearest Fedex to do it fast, but everyone was in the same boat, so computers were all taken. Decided to head back to the hotel room to get my laptop, but  by the time everything got done, it was too late. So here I am waiting for 1pm to walk there again. Hope everything works out perfectly after that.

     So far, haven't done much in Chicago. First day I got here we just checked in the hotel room, which is amazing by the way; walked around and had dinner. Woke up really early yesterday for some odd reason. Rented a bike and rode it across the seashore up to the Navy Pier. There we got to walk around, take few pictures and just enjoy a sunny day in general. Later for dinner I had this amazing pasta with shrimp, orange (raw) and a green sauce (not creative) that tasted so good. I wanted to order like ten of those to go. So good. And today... well the visa has taken all day so far. At night I'm going on a date. Yes. It's an official date because it was clearly stated it was. Then tomorrow is the Neon Trees concert! Secretly, I want to make that a date too. (I just hope that he doesn't read this post...)

     Just a few more days and I will be heading out for Beijing. If all goes well, next post will be officially my as an Au Pair. I am really nervous and excited about it. Wish me luck guys! 

Horologe

"In truth, you wont notice the difference so much. When you see us online on Facebook, it makes it feel less far away than it seems. You will only feel the distance in time (zones) and you get used too. We made our polygamous relationship work last semester, one summer is nothing." - G

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      I am actually in my Geography class writing this. Don't have much time to do the blog out of class. Plus, I have no wifi at my new place. And since I am going away soon, I don't care much about it.

     I'm leaving on Saturday. First stop will be Chicago. I'll be staying 5-ish days there. Neon Trees Concert, Beercades, The Amazing Spiderman on IMAX and Sears Tower (staying away from the sky-deck for sure) will be some of the activities I'll do while I wait for the Chinese Visa to process. I just remembered that I need to cancel my couchsurfing request. I'll just do it later. The host seemed so cool and eager to take me around. Hoping I get to hang out with him sometime while there.

     The fact that I am not heading directly for Beijing has kept me from being dramatic about my leave. Three months seem so long and short at the same time. Those three months are without taking in consideration the pre and post stops. No time seems enough to spend with my family and friends. Wish I could just be done with school and work, head home and be there with my mom. I know me not being there on Mother's Day will make her sad in some ways. But we get to do our yearly Ednita Nazario's concert.

     Five days, seven things to do. And by things I mean schoolwork (finals, essays and such). Yet, I am not as stressed as I should be. I've been doing everything greatly so far. I am sure that as the departure date gets near I will start going crazy stressed about stupid stuff that can be resolved easily. At least I have found a way to calm down when I feel like this.

     No bags done. No visa yet. I need to memorise all the information about the host family in case they interview me in the Chinese Consulate. Haven't bought the host family's presents yet. I kind of have some idea of what I will get them. Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books for the girls,  Puerto Rican rum for the host father (Don Q or Bacardi) and no idea for the host mom (Comment ideas please!). Women are always the hardest.

Professor is talking about monkeys stealing watermelons in Lajas, PR. This... wow.