Well, I'm back. After 23 hours of travel, delayed flights, teething babies, striking caterers (no meals on the plane,) and crowded airports I finaly made it to changchun. I love traveling, but I really don't like flying.
The trip was ok, only a few things made it stand out.
At Beijing airport, fighting through crowds of people to find a ticket to Changchun, I met a ticket scalper. I guess the fact that there were very few seats and I had a language barrier made me look like I would be easy prey. I bartered with them for awhile and finaly decided to tke my chances elsewhere. When I finaly told them no they followed me around as I was looking and eventually offered me the lowest price I said I'd pay, but by then I found a ticket for the same price through a regular dealer. Ha! I'm not so helpless after all, am I?
Waiting for my flight to leave, they changed the boarding gate three times, so I was getting a little concerned. When we were finaly going onto the shuttle to take us out to the plane I reconfirmed with the driver. "Changchun?" "Dui. (Right)" and then when I got to the plane again "Changchun?" and they looked at me like I was crazy "Wo bu ji dao. Changchun ma?' (I dont know...Changchun?) aaarrrgghhh!!
I will try to put my impressions of my vacation together in some rational order and put them down in a blog soon...
gotta go shoping now and try to make my apartment a little more liveable
hugs T
