Flying Home

In Beijing, my flight boarded on time, but then we sat on the runway for over two hours waiting to take off. I understand that there was a lot of snow on the ground and canceled flights from the day before were being made up, but honestly, the Chinese system of dealing with problems really sucks. Instead of coming up with an efficient plan when problems happen and telling the staff change things a bit, they just let things go and hope they're okay. They're not. I'm not mad about the flight, it's just an observation.

So, when I got to the U.S., I was late for my flight to Columbus. Obviously, a ton of other people were late, too. Also, the day before there had apparently been a 'security breach' at this airport, so all the flights were rescheduled for today and tomorrow. Basically, every single person at the airport was stressed and angry. I tried to be nice to the lady rescheduling my flight. It paid off. Because my flight was delayed due to weather conditions, I wasn't supposed to be given a free hotel room. Because I was being nice, the lady asked where I was coming from, how long my flight had been, how old I was, etc. She took pity on me and gave me a hotel voucher and meal coupons. Awesome.

So now I'm at a hotel. I ate a turkey sandwich, took a hot shower, and am looking forward to taking a nap in one of the two king-sized beds in the room. What a way to return to the states!

Hotel

I went on a weekend trip to the near-by city of Tianshui with some friends from the U.S. and Canada. We enjoy going on trips; it's great to get away from classes and studying, and we all want to see as much of China as we can while we're here.

Train tickets are cheap, hotels are cheap, and food is cheap. We still like to get the best deals we can. In fact, during our trip to Tianshui, we stayed in a very strange "hotel" to save money.

For less than $3 per person, the five of us spent one night in an elementary school that had been turned into a hotel. What this means is that the desks were removed and beds were brought in. That's right- there were no bathrooms in the rooms. And the community bathroom in the building did not have a shower.

Furthermore, the lights in the hallways were turned off to save money on electricity. I don't even need to mention that this hotel was very dirty, do I?

The conditions may sound awful, but to my friends and I, the dirtier and stranger, the better. I sometimes compare it to camping: What fun is it to stay in a lodge when you could stay in a tent? It's the same for us in China. We could stay in nice hotels, but we might as well be back in America.