Disconnected

I’m not writing as much. 

More specifically, I’m not blogging as much as I did last year. 

It’s not like I have less going on in my life.  In fact, I feel quite the opposite.  A lot is going here in my lovely corner of China.  I am not seeing fewer weird things.  The same amount of weirdness is happening, but maybe I am just noticing it less.

So what’s the difference? How is this year different than last year?

I’ve disconnected a bit.

Last year, I was the first one into work in the mornings so I could Skype with whoever showed up on my contacts list.  I was desperate to chat.  I wanted to hear the news from home and see familiar friends and family.  I wanted to be a part of everything, even though I wasn’t there.  Mostly, I didn’t want to be forgotten. 

It was kind of embarrassing if I stop to think about it.  “Remember me?! Look at me!  I’m still here, guys!”

But I get it, I think. It was a process, and I had to go through it.

I think things changed this summer and more so, when I came home for Christmas.  Life has gone on.  And. That. Is. Okay.   Friends got married and had babies and took on new jobs. And. That. Is. Okay.  Even though I wasn’t right there in the middle of the events didn’t mean I was less of a friend. My friends still love me, even though I wasn’t there.  Thank God for that. 

This assurance has allowed me to pull back a little.  Skype has become less of a lifeline and more of the casual method of communication it was meant to be.  I don’t sweat it when I haven’t talked to someone in a few weeks.  My morning routine has begun to include meeting up with actual people for a coffee before work, not drinking my coffee and eating my bagel over a Skype conversation.  I don’t spend every weekend morning at school because, “The Internet is faster and I need to use Skype.”  I spend Sunday nights eating curry with my friend, not waiting for the Central Time Zone to wake up. 

Basically, I live a bit more.

And while living, my homesickness fades away. 

It’s funny how that happens.  Spending less time worrying about home causes me to spend less time worrying about home. 

Crazy, huh?

A Bit of a Rough Landing

How lucky am I!?

I spent Christmas with my family.  I danced my butt off celebrating my friend Donnyves’ wedding.  I, through pure luck, was scheduled for a hair appointment immediately following my dear friend Katie and spent a few wonderful hours talking with her.  I had wonderful conversations with friends I missed so much.  I attended Christmas Eve services at Jacob’s Well with Juli and Matthew and sang my lungs out to ‘O Holy Night’. I saw my first K-state basketball game(!) and passed the day chatting with my good friend Lisa. I hugged my dog, my sister and my parents.  I even went out for an evening of trivia with my team. 

It was fantastic... but a short visit none the less.

January 4th arrived too quickly.  Again, pure luck, serendipity, or good fortune put me on a flight with my friend Sara who was on her way back to Beijing.  We managed to have someone trade seats with me so we could sit together and get caught up.  It was so great to hear of her life in Beijing.  It is still China, but what a different world!

Then the debacle begins. 
Landing gear down, solid ground in sight, the plane slowing to land then... nope.  We ascend back into the air. 

Apparently there was “traffic” on the runway that our pilot wanted to avoid.  When he announced it, he said it just like he chose to take a left turn to use an alternate route to the airport. Good choice, sir.  Thanks for avoiding the “traffic.”   

Sara and I found a cheese burger at 10:00 am; our last meal in the states.  I walked with her to her boarding area and said goodbye with a promise to chat soon and maybe travel somewhere together for Chinese New Year. 

And then the debacle resumes. 
I head to my departure gate, which we are sharing with another flight that is leaving at approximately the same time for Frankfurt.  The Frankfurt flight begins boarding, “Ladies and gentlemen, we are now boarding seating group 1,” the speakers announce.  Notice that they didn’t specify the flight.  So, ALL passengers of both flights, begin pushing towards the boarding gates.  This continues for 30 minutes before the gate attendants realize what is happening.  So, to clarify, OUR gate attendants get on and say, “We are not boarding, yet.  That is the other flight.”  Notice again, how they did not specify the flight.  So the poor folks going to Frankfurt get a bit confused.  This went on for another 10 minutes before both attendants realized that they needed to actually specify what announcements were for which flight.  Jeeze. 

Our flight boarded an hour late.  There was a “leak.”  I looked out to where our plane was parked and yes, there was a small lake of liquid under the belly of the plane.  Yikes.  But don’t worry folks, it’s been fixed.  Ok.  So, I’ll just block that from my mind during my 13 hour flight.  Great.

I pass my boarding pass to the gate attendant, she tears off the large portion and returns the small stub to me.  At about three hours into the flight, I realize that my baggage claim tickets were stuck to the back of the large stub.  The baggage claim tickets that I need in order to get my luggage on the ferry to Shekou.  Damn it. 

Debacle continues around dinner time.  The head purser came to me to tell me that they didn’t have any more vegetarian meals and that I would have to eat the regular meals.  Okay, so I am not a vegetarian.  But I prefer the vegetarian meals.  Plus you get served first.  It wasn’t a big deal, but seriously, customer service, United.  Look it up. It just made me cranky. 

As we are served drinks and dinner, the lady next to me proceeds to get pretty much hammered.  While I was sleeping, she literally jumped over me to go to the bathroom instead of waking me up.  During a time of pretty decent turbulence, she continually pressed the call button so they could bring her new headphones. They actually had to come over the speakers to explain that the flight attendants were strapped in for safety and could not attend to the calls.  She still hit the button one more time, for good measure. 

About five hours into the flight, my (personal set of) earphones broke off in the plug.  I loved these earphones, because they stick in my ears and block out all other sounds-  the baby crying behind me, the loud conversation behind me, and the guy laughing loudly while watching Two and a Half Men. Yep.  All of those things I could hear.  For the next eight hours. 

Thirteen hours is a long time, y’all.  Little things get on your nerves.  So, yeah.  At this point I was beyond cranky.  Thank goodness for a bit of Xanax. 

Upon arrival in HK, I raced to the ferry ticket counter to try to solve the problem of the missing baggage tags.  “No problem,” he said.  All I needed to do is go to the United ticket counter and have them reprint the tags!  Yes!  Where was the United ticket counter?  At the other end of a really long hall.  Like really long.  I couldn’t see the end of it from where I was standing.  I had exactly 10 minutes to get the tags reprinted and get back to the ferry ticket counter to purchase my tickets.  I raced to the other end of the hall (5 minutes) and found that there was a line 10 deep at the ticket counter. Crap. 

I trudged back down the hall towards immigration and found my way to the vans to Mainland China.  About an hour later, I opened the door to my apartment. 

My crappy outlook vanished when I looked around my beautifully cleaned apartment to find little notes from Zhou to explain all of the extra cleaning and washing she did while I was gone. 

I am a pretty lucky girl.