Aviation misadventures

Well I have returned to China, after wonderful and somewhat extended visit home for Christmas. Christmas break was great, got some quality family time which made the ordeal of travel well worth it. As you might imagine, trans-oceanic adventures are generally riddled with their fair share of frustrations, and while 30 hours beats the 30 weeks it would have taken to make the journey by boat a hundred years ago, it is still a REALLY long time to be in a plane/airport. As with most journeys, everything went well til I got to the airport. At the ticket counters in the Kunming airport, the delineation between different airlines is fluid at best. There was no one at my airline’s ticket counter, so some random guy took me to a random counter. By some miracle they checked me in. I was even able to speak Chinese to them. A banner day. Then I arrived at Beijing, to be greeted by a Starbucks. Be still my heart. Until I got to the ticket counter (If I ever write a book, it will be titled “It was all going well until I got to the ticket counter”) to discover that my four hour layover had been doubled, giving me 20 minutes to make a connection upon arrival in San Francisco. After a great deal of people-watching, I finally boarded the plane and promptly fell asleep. I woke up somewhere over the Pacific vaguely wondering what would happen to me and my luggage as I most likely wouldn’t make my connection. Many others were wondering the same thing. We finally land and run through customs, only to wait for luggage. Unfortunately checking one’s bags all the way to the final destination does not get them through customs on their own. So we waited for our bags. And waited. And then just to change things up we waited some more. Our connections were leaving. Our bags were in some unknown location. And suddenly the beautiful sound of a luggage carousel clanging. Bags poured forth from every direction. So many that the carousel broke. Back to waiting. By the time we got our bags, they just let us bypass customs and run to the reticketing counter. I was told that I might actually make my flight. It was still on time (meaning it left 10 min ago) but was running just a little late so I could make it. I ran as fast as I could, flying through security and nearly running over innocent pedestrians. I arrive breathless at the gate, and go to join the line of passengers preparing to board. Except they’re all going to Monterrey. It turns out my flight, which was still “on time” was running “a little late” (20 min) because the previous flight was running over an hour late and was just beginning to board. I had time to clean up, grab a bite to eat, relax a bit. My flight ended up being over an hour late but I wasn’t complaining. Although I did have to fight the urge to scream at the woman who complained about the horrors of have to spend four hours in an airport. After all was said and done I arrived at my final destination only an hour late, which I think was pretty good.
But only a week and a half later I had to return. So we packed up the car and the family drove me three hours to Kansas City. It was all going well, until I got to the ticket counter. I tried to swipe my passport, but it didn’t work so I had to give it to the guy behind the counter. He entered my info. As soon as he did, a look came over his face which told me wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Turned out my flight (which the airline had told me was on time when I called a few hours before) was delayed 2 hours, but it didn’t matter since my connecting flight was cancelled. After some woeful system searching, it was decided that I couldn’t fly out for four more days. While a bit annoying since we’d driven all that way (and to the co-workers who would have to cover for me), getting another weekend at home was pretty great.
The weekend was fantastic, except the part spent on hold with airlines. There were issues with my rebooking, but after many hours I was assured that everything was fine and dandy. I made it to Los Angeles and everything was going well. Until I got to ticket counter. I discovered things were not fine and dandy. United airlines had sort of forgotten to confirm my seat (and two other people’s) and so they gave our seats away. Standby isn’t a good thing at 12:40 am. When the next flight won’t leave for another 8-12 hours. So I stood there and glared at them til they gave me a seat. Once again I ran through the airport, just making it in time to board.
After all that adventure I arrived safely back in Kunming and made it work that afternoon. Today was wonderful day of picture-taking with my new camera!!! I showed the pictures I took at home to the people who work at the restaurant where I had dinner. They were quite impressed. I know they said the snow was beautiful and then they were really excited to see my family but I couldn’t understand what they said about them. I’m sure it was good things though. Still tired and sore from the plane, so I’ll sign off. Love and miss everyone!