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…