Missing a Flight in China!

Journal # 36 March 30, 2009

I was woken up by Meghan screaming "Michelle, its 7 o'clock you were supposed to leave at 5." I looked at my clock and said "not unh, I have 30 more min to sleep its only 4:00”" she looked at me again and said "no its 7." I jumped out of bed turned on the TV and saw that it really was 7 o'clock. My alarm clock had broken and I had missed my trip to Beijing.

I ran to the field office to explain what had happen they told me that I could leave with the group that was leaving at 7:15 and try to catch my flight that was leaving at 8:30 with my original group. I ran to my room packed, of course I had not packed yet, and got my passport. I ran to meet the group in the union. The airport was about 40 min away and I knew there was no way I was going to make my flight. I broke down at that moment and cried for about 2 hours straight. It was at that moment that I wanted my family and friends. This was the first time I had ever felt that way on this trip. I sat at the airport alone for about 2 hours waiting for the ticket counter to open. I wanted to call my family I wanted to be with them but I knew I couldn't.

When I started talking to the ticket people they told me that I might have to pay $500 to get a new ticket to Beijing. I was really upset. I could not stop crying. When it was time to buy my ticket I walked up to the counter and the guy handed me a ticket. They had traded my tickets and I did not have to pay any extra money. THANKGOODNES!!!!!

At that moment the day started to get so much better for me. I got on a flight with the other SAS group and when we got to Beijing a man from the travel agency met me and took me to meet up with my group. I really did not miss much of my trip that morning. All they had done was go to lunch after the airport. The man that picked me up was named Sam, he gave me his own personal tour of Beijing. I got to see the Birds Nest, where the opening ceremonies were for the Biejing Olympics. I got to see the place where the swimming competition were taken place, where Michael Phelps won all his medals. I got to see some temples and a lot of other stuff.

So at around 3 it was time to meet up with my group at the Forbidden City. This is where the king lived during the winter. When we got there Sam dropped me off at the place where the group would be ending their tour. He told me that they would be there in 20 min. So I walked around for a little while but not too far because I did not want to get lost. The city was absolutely gorgeous. The trees were so pretty and the buildings were amazing. There was a man sitting by the entrance playing a flute so I sat there for a while and just listened to him playing while taking in where I was and what had happened to me that day. I was so thankful that I was able to get to Beijing with not to many complications and was able to be in the same place as my group. It was at this moment where I realized how blessed I was to be here and how lucky I was. Its amazing how things work out for a reason.

So after sitting there for about an hour I was getting a little nervous. My group was supposed to meet me here 40 min ago. I thought maybe I was at the wrong entrance. Man what else could go wrong in one day. About 10 min later I saw my group, yeahhaa!!!. I was so happy to see them. We got on the bus and headed to the hotel. My roommate was a girl named Amy who I had never met before. She has actually already graduated from college but is taking organic chem. on the ship for med school. She was really nice.

For dinner we went to a restaurant that's specialty was pecking duck. It was a family styled restaurant that had a lazy susan in the middle and we all sheared the food. It was really good!!! After dinner we headed back to the hotel where I fell right to sleep because I was exhausted from all the events of the day. Tomorrow we are going to the Great Wall so I wanted to be well rested for that.

Love
Michelle