9/16
Time to go…or maybe not. We left our hostel and crammed who was leaving (about half of us stayed in China for a while longer, those who have already graduated) in a van and went to the airport.
Okay, this is where the real fun began.
We got on the plane at about 11:15 China time. We were SUPPOSED to leave at 11:30. So first one of the pilots emergency oxygen masks was missing and there was not one extra one on any other plane or in the entire airport. So they had one rush flown in from some place else. This took a couple hours.
Next there were some sick people on the plane and no doctors onboard to help them. So they had to get more doctors (and I found out later were supposed to take the plane away from the airport but refused to so the “punished” the American crew by making us all wait for the rest of the planes at the airport to leave). People became very pissed and restless by about the third or fourth hour onboard, but I actually was okay. I kept myself entertained with music, computer and cards. It was funny how ridiculous the whole situation was.
So next they had to get about half the people who left the plane back on board, which took another good hour or so. Then the our crew was over their limit in working hours for the day so they had to go find another crew off another plane to take us back. They eventually found a plane going to D.C., cancelled that flight because we had more people than they did, and the D.C. crew came to deal with hundreds of pissed as hell passengers (their lucky day). Speaking of which, the flight number was UA 888 CA 8888. All 8’s and in China, 8 is a lucky number meaning wealth. But if time was money, we were bankrupt. It was so ironic and even before we boarded the flight I thought to myself, “All these eights, I bet we’ll have bad luck instead of good.” God I hate it when I’m right.
So, new crew, passengers back on, it’s about 5-5:30 China time. Now they gotta check out the entire plane for safety and get some luggage back on and off for the people returning back and the people not returning back.
Then there was one more thing I think… what was it… I can’t remember right now and that’s actually fine with me. Guess what time we ended up leaving… If you guessed 6 you’re wrong, if you guess 7 you’re wrong. 7:40pm, China time. We weighted in one little area for over 8 hours. We sat parked at the Beijing airport and didn’t move for an entire working day.
So naturally our flight from San Fran back to Eugene was totally screwed. We traveled back in time and finally arrived 10.5 hours later at San Francisco about 3:30 pm Pacific standard time. We got home even before we left.
More long waiting in line to get our new flights.
Something really cool did turn out of it all. As I was finally checking my bags for a 9:20 pm flight back to Eugene I saw Dominic Monaghan (“Merry”, one of the hobbits from the Lord of the Rings movies). I went up to him and spoke with him for a bit, got my picture with him and was on my way. He was on his way to LA for business.
The airline gave us $15 for some dinner in the airport. I ate pepperoni pizza (awesome to have again) and some Kettle chips. I read a magazine, worked on some blogs, then got on the flight. And the UO girls soccer team was there coming back from some games at Salt Lake City.
The hour flight home felt lightning quick compared to the rest of the day. It’s good to be home. :)
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