Saturday, March 24, 2007

A Bad Day!

We got to Beijing airport, and with all of the toys our luggage was waaaaay over the in-country limits. Total.... $400 US!! So Julie (FTIA) started to bargain. China South Airlines would not budge. So she gets on the phone and calls who else but, well I can't tell you who she called but let's just say that when she was finished, we were able to get the bill cut in half. So while I didn't expect this extra cost, I paid it and on we went. It was still pretty darn good for having 5 pieces of luggage way over the weight limit.

At this point, we had waited so long that we were almost late for our flight so we were scrambling through security and literally running through the airport. We finally get to the gate only to find that the flight was delayed. (Murphy's Law). It wasn't too bad, only about a half hour. So after the delay, off we went.

We had to stop and deboard the plane in Changsha as a layover and that's when the fun began. It was suppose to be only 15 minutes. An hour later they announce that the flight has been cancelled due to the fog both there and in ZJ. So they're going to put us up at the airport hotel.......

Round 1, there is an angry mob of Chinese businessmen. They are storming the counter yelling at the poor girls working the airline's desk. In their faces demanding that the plane WILL take off and they want to talk to the airport's director (remember, it's about 9 pm, yum.....I think he's at home relaxing with his family at the moment). Had we been in America, these people would have been taken away in handcuffs it was that bad.

Round 2, they finally allow us to board the plane to get our personal belongings. We take inventory between the 5 of us. We have a travel size thing of toothpaste, lip gloss, 1/2 a bottle of warm Coke, Advil, and 2 squares of sponge cake left over from the flight we were just on. Of course we hadn't had dinner on the plane because, well you know, the main course was unrecognizable and then there were the Aviation Pickles for dessert...you get the picture.

Round 3, we were told that we would be put up at the airport hotel and would be given dinner as well as breakfast the next morning. Of course the angry mob was not happy about that because they were still demanding that the plane take off even thought you couldn't see the runway because of the fog. So they cram us all up into the shuttle bus. We literally drove 200 feet and then we stopped. Just from the looks of the outside I knew we were in BIG trouble. So we unload and let the angry mob go in front of us. The front desk informs everyone that we all had to share 3 people to a room--strangers getting to know one another. Julie finally negotiates 3 rooms for the 5 of us, having to pay $ for the third room, but at least we didn't need to share a room with a stranger.

Round 4, We're waiting to go to our room when they inform us that it's too late for them to prepare food and so we were going to get a bottle of water--yum, yum!! So now we're tired, dirty, AND hungry. So they finally give us our room numbers and we're on our way. We get to our rooms and I looked at Julie and said...um, how are we suppose to get in, they had not given us a room key. She said we had to use the phone mounted on the wall in the hallway. So she calls for someone to let us in our rooms. We wait...and wait...and finally someone arrives. Of course then they tell us that we can't go out of our rooms because the door will lock behind us and we wouldn't be given a key. And of course we couldn't use the hall phone because they don't speak English. Nice..........So we enter and rooms and there are no words to describe what we saw and smelled--think Goldie Hawn, Bird on a Wire, and the BIG cock roach that landed on her head in the shower---THAT hotel was the Hilton compared to where they took us. I have never in all my life seen and smelled such filth in all my life. There was a HUGE black bug on the floor in one of our rooms, the bathrooms looked and smelled like...well, and you just don't want to know.

Round 5, At this point we were ready to throw up the white flag. We turned around and went back downstairs. It looked like we were going to have to sleep in the hotel lobby. Of course Julie is on her cell phone trying to fix the whole situation. Finally she was able to get a hold of FTIA's local guide. She arranged for a driver to pick us up and take us to the Dalton in Changsha which is where many families stay when they travel to Changsha to adopt. So while we were waiting on the driver, Julie was scrambling making even more phone calls. Canceling our hotel reservations in ZJ. She had to call the director in ZJ and tell her that we would have to cancel the first round of Auntie training that was supposed to start the next morning at 9am. She then had to call of the Aunties.

The driver finally showed up, we were able to take a nice hot shower and get maybe 6 hours of sleep. We are now waiting for the breakfast buffet to open and hopefully after a nice hot breakfast we'll be able to have a better day. Our new flight is supposed to leave at 9am for ZJ. Please keep us in your prayers. We've lost a day of training and our already tight schedule has now become even tighter.

Thanks again for following along on our journey, we covet everyone's prayers. Hopefully next time we write, it will be from ZJ City!!

The ZKO Team

No comments: