I'm Coming Home (June 29th)

I woke up a little before 8 and thought, “I will be in D.C. in 24 hours!” The excitement of finally getting to come home was overwhelming! I can’t believe it’s been 7 weeks and my time in China is finally just about over.

I Skyped with Mom and Sis for the last time while I’m here and we were all excited that the next time we talk, I will be in the States. I don’t know how my cousin’s husband, Ray, was in Iraq/Afghanistan for six months or something crazy at a time.

Richard was to pick me up at 9:30 but he called the hotel and the front desk guy told me the phone was for me since I was sitting down there waiting for Richard already. Richard told me that the traffic was bad at that time and I should go ahead and bring my bags down. After I hung up the phone, I walked back up to the third floor to load up to take my things downstairs. I had two suitcases, one big one and a medium sized one, my messenger bag, and my camera bag to lug down the stairs. I made it down the first flight when one of the guys working grabbed the large one and took it down for me. I guess I must have looked a little pathetic. I just figured it was an extra nearly 100 pounds to lug!

I sat and waited for Richard for an hour while sitting in the lobby which was very small and read my Kindle. I have never read so much for pleasure in 7 weeks. I guess it could have been the lack of TV or to keep from boredom. Regardless, I may have found that it’s not so bad to read and I might actually enjoy it again. All the books I read while I was gone were easy reads, which is good for me, and they were free downloads on Amazon. Yep, I love FREE!

It’s now about 10:40 when my things were loaded into Richard’s car. He apologized for being late and said it was the traffic and he was lost. No problem – as long as I am at the airport on time! I didn’t need to be there until 3:30, so I was ok at this point. We drove for nearly an hour to a different part of town to go to the Silk Pearl Market which is very famous and a lot of tourist visit there. Before we went into the market, Richard said we were going to get some fast food first. I was slightly concerned by this comment because I didn’t see anything familiar when we got out of the car. We walked around the corner and there was a McDonald’s. Ahhh, yes, more McDonald’s – I’ve eaten more of that in the past five days than I have in five months!

McDonald’s was crowded and I went to find a seat while Richard ordered us food. I opted for the Big Mac again since I figured I should get all this unhealthy eating out of my system before heading home. He asked me if this McDonald’s tasted the same as home and I told him it was exactly like home – fries too! We finished eating and then walked over to the market.

The market had 2 below ground floors and 5 regular floors. We went to the fourth floor by elevator where I found all sorts of things. There were keychains, magnets, traditional Chinese knots which are to be lucky. The people working there would tell me that they would sell the stuff to someone else for different price and give me a good deal. Man, I really hate to haggle prices! Richard did some of it for me and the one girl told me that since my friend was Chinese, I would get a good deal. I wheeled and dealed a little and didn’t get much but it was an experience. The whole time I was in there I kept thinking about how it was like being in the islands, especially Port Lucaya in the Bahamas, where they all sell the same thing and want you to come into their “store” which is just a small area. I told Richard that I hate shopping and he agreed with me but it was very kind of him to take me.

The next item on the agenda was for Richard to take me to the airport. There are three terminals at the Beijing Capital Airport and I was at Terminal 3 which is far away from the other 2 terminals but didn’t mean it wasn’t less busy. Terminal 3 was for International flights and seemed as though it should have been its own airport. The place is huge! I was there so early, which was just fine with me that I finished reading the book I was reading earlier in the day before it was close enough time to get in the long line at the United counter. I didn’t see hardly any Chinese people in the line either. Maybe there will be more American’s on this flight! I was surprised that the people working the ticket counter had Air China nametags on and not United. I guess it could be because of the STAR Alliance thing. Who knows and I really didn’t care as long as my bags and myself was on the flight to Washington, D.C. in about three hours!

After check-in, I cruised through some of the stores and exchanged my money back to U.S. dollars and headed toward security. I only had to show my boarding pass to get to the train to take me out to the terminal. At the terminal, we had to go through Chinese customs where I was behind this guy from who knows where (maybe he was Middle Eastern???) that stunk. His body odor was horrible. I couldn’t stand to be more than five feet behind him! I went through the gate and through security check and then headed toward my gate, E28 where I realized there were many Americans and not many Chinese waiting. This flight was going to be the opposite of when I came here!

We had to stand in lines according to our boarding groups. I was group five and talked to the two guys behind me. One worked at IUP as I forget what but spent 2 weeks traveling all over China and the other was a younger Chinese-American guy, from Atlanta, who goes to China every 2 years to visit his grandparents. I board the plane and think there is a Chinese dude in my aisle seat, so I take the window since there were only two seats in my row. Then comes the Atlanta guy and says that I’m in his seat and we straighten out the Chinese dude. I was pretty sure I had the aisle seat because I figured I could get up and stretch without having to bother someone. The Atlanta dude tells me his name is Mao and proceeded to tell me he wasn’t a good travel companion because he likes to sleep. No problem with me, buddy!

Let the next 14 hours begin with the nearly 7000 miles in the air begin. I slept probably four maybe five of those hours but intermittently and not a deep sleep. I had dinner which was chicken breast and mashed potatoes with a salad, roll, and a dessert-type thing I saved for later. We also had a snack mid-flight of a banana, banana bread, and a pecan cookie which I added apple juice to drink. Our last meal was about an hour and fifteen minutes before landing and you could get Chinese noodles or eggs and sausage. Since it felt like it should be morning time to me, I opted for the eggs. I thought the noodles could be like the ones on the way over and was scared for the smell. Thankfully, they were different and the smell was not overwhelming! The flight got quite turbulent at this point and service had to be suspended. We were about 30 minutes from landing when they told us they might not be able to pick up our trays before landing which I had never heard of that before. Somehow though, they did very quickly and the next thing I knew, we were landing in Washington, D.C.!

I was one of the last people on the first tram/bus thing to head toward customs. I was the fourth one in the customs line and had a very nice officer. He asked why I was in China, to which I said learning the culture (since I had the “tourist” Visa for China and not w working one). He also asked if I had food and how much cash I had. I got my stamp and headed toward baggage claim. To my surprise the SmartCarts were free in D.C. as well. Those things really are convenient – I had never used them before this trip. I think my bags were near the last of the bags to come out!

I walked through the door from the customs area and saw Sis with camera in hand and mom walking very quickly to come meet me. Sis had made a sign and brought a balloon with her. Wow – amazing to be in the States and really see Mom and Sis and not on Skype! We finally made it to the car, loaded it up, and headed towards Sheetz! On the way to Sheetz, there were fireworks off in the distance and I told mom and sis that they knew I was coming home and wanted to welcome me.

We finally made it to Sheetz with not much help of the Tom Tom. We ate our food and then continued on the road. There was a crazy lightning show and then some wind and rain in Virginia on the way toward Frederick. We stopped at the Maryland rest stop on 70 and I took over driving which felt incredibly weird at first to be behind the wheel! I pulled into the driveway around 11:50 p.m. Sis had also put a sign and balloon in my room to welcome me home.

I wasn’t tired at this point, so I got on the computer and uploaded some pictures before finally calling it a night – which was really like a day – at 2 a.m. I was lying in my bed which felt like a cloud and I could still smell the clean scent of Tide and had my Rolo right beside me. I think he missed me! Ahh … it’s good to be home!