what a crazy, flippin' day! it's like the cosmos wanted to give me a final exam JUST to make sure i'm going home with a real lesson...
WORST (and that's saying a LOT) ride to the airport... unidentified driver and "guide," who couldn't manage to roll out my big bag that *i* carried down three flights of stairs (and darling, petite sawang ended up rolling out to the car... sheesh!)... AND didn't speak a word of english... weird incident on the road (but one of many that i'll talk about when i'm home... )... and then they both dumped me off in the lhasa airport parking lot...
fine... i can do this... no problem... chaos inside the airport... wait patiently .. (slightly worried because it was a 1:45 p.m. and the flights was set for 3 p.m... hahahahaha!!!!)... yeah... i knew my baggage was overweight (and, frankly, got off pretty sweet on the inbound flight, with no penalties... )... but when i go to the "overage" counter (while the ticket desk holds my friggin passport!)... the woman tells me i have to pay about 750 yuan (just more than $100)... and i only have 368 yuan to my name... i sort of panic... ask if they take credit cards... nope! is there an ATM nearby? nope!... so basically, i dump all the money i have on the counter... and tell her that's it.. and ask... "now what???"... hilariously enough... she holds up her index finger.. says "wait"... walks away... comes back 10 minutes later with a new "overage" slip of less than half the extra weight and a charge of 358 yuan... she proceeds to take ALL my money and then hands back 10 yuen ... (the equivalent of about $1.20)... and i STILL keep my cool... (yes... me!)
dump my water before security... scootch through after security takes my purell, saying that is "flammable" (oddly, it wasn't flammable OR a problem at any other point in my travels... :)... and, aha! STILL no ATM... no way to get $$$$ before the 2-hour flight to chengdu... OK.. fine...
but wait! the 3 p.m. flight... leaves... at... just before 5 p.m..... argh!... still smiling... really!... (although i'm also sad because i already miss the kids like crazy... )... so, fine.. stuck in an aiport for three hours... scrounging my backpack for anything edible and/or resembling water... and... again... decent mood... even offerered the overly gruff chinese security guy some gum... which elicted a smile and a "thank you"... nice... anyhoo, finally loaded into a tube with 200-plus coughing, hacking people who are eyeing ME suspiciously and the only thing said to me the whole time is "do you have swine flu?"... ahahahahaha!!!!
so, far... i'm passing with FLYING colors (really, kind of proud of myself... )...
and... then... the karmic curveball...
not one bag missing...
BOTH!
everyone who checked in at "the proper" time... we all got screwed...
and, yes, i lost it... complete... total.. and utter meltdown... i admit it... i was SO the pissed-off, ugly american that i should have been wearing a fanny pack, hawaiian shirt and stuffing a big mac in my face...
it was disgusting...
and then i caught myself... stopped... breathed... apologized to everyone around me... walked to the complete end of the line... and sat in humble silence until everyone else had filled out the forms to have their luggage delivered... even if my pre-paid ride left... even if they gave away my room... i put myself in the corner...
i hope that, in the end, it qualifies me as eligible for extra credit...
thankfully, my ride (same driver and gal who picked me up before... you know, the one that ran off? actually... she's very nice... she had her son - about clare's age - with her... and i felt really bad that they'd had to wait... again, the offer of wrigley's gum seems to make all happy... and her son gave me a cute little token in return... see? :)
so, now, i'm back in the cacophany of the mainland... missing the auditory beauty of the tibetan language... sitting in my hostel bar.. eating spicy tofu... blabbering... drinking a tsingtao... and blindly hoping that my luggage did, in fact, come in on the last flight from lhasa... and that both bags will find their way to me before the a.m. and aren't lost in the void... (besides losing a LOT of stuff... most of ya'll won't be getting presents... so you might want to root for the same ;)
miss lhasa... but happy to be working my way home...
k
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