I planned a short trip to visit friends in Nanning a few weekends ago. Thinking nothing strange would happen, I packed my bags. I left my apartment on Friday morning and headed to the Beijing airport. The Halligans (good friends of mine from Monmouth) were headed to Nanning for two weeks, and I took the weekend to visit them since they were in the same country and time zone. I had purchased tickets to fly down on Friday and return to Beijing on Sunday, since I had classes to teach on Monday. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare and amused myself by finding something for lunch since I didn't know if the airline would serve food. When it came time to board at 12:10pm, I happily lined up, boarded the plane, and found my seat. I buckled in and waited. I was the closer to the front of the plane than I had ever been before. We waited for a short while till an announcement came over the loud speakers that we were going to need to wait... so we waited... we waited until 2:10pm when we finally took off. In the meantime, they served us lunch (my second lunch of the day). By 3:10pm we were on the ground again; unfortunately we were not in Nanning... the plane (for a reason still unknown to me) had to turn around to return. The airplane was grounded, and we passengers were shuttled to a hotel to wait. When we got to the hotel we waited... waited for dinner (which was served at 5:30pm); waited for a phone call (which came a little after dinner); then settled in to wait for the next day since our flight was rescheduled for 10am.
Saturday morning, I woke up but, not having the right information, was not packed when I received a phone call reminder from the front desk telling me that my bus to the airport was about to leave. I hurriedly shoved everything into my bags and made my way to the bus with plenty of time to spare. I'm so thankful that the hotel staff were looking out for me! I piled onto this bus and sat down near several Chinese people who had sat next to me on the plane ride the day before. These two gentlemen from the Nanning area, whom I dubbed my guardians, proceeded to look out for me and make sure that I had everything that I needed, that I had been checked in correctly, and that I made it to my final destination in Nanning. The flight to Nanning occurred with no issues.
My twenty-five hour visit with the Halligans was wonderful. We amused ourselves greatly, enjoying the warm weather and tropical climate. Laughter was a common commodity, and I left glad for the short time spent together with dear friends! Luckily, my flight to Beijing had no problems. Although it was cold in Beijing, i made it safely to my apartment where I snuggled under the covers and slept until morning made it necessary to rise.
I had put the trip in the hands of my father; although he did not work things out in the way I had expected, it was an absolutely wonderful weekend adventure!!
