When the only way to avoid certain destruction is with Chinese currency...
I’m thinking that my sunglasses were the reason why. I was alone for the first time in days and no one was staring. It felt like a whole new world of perspective. Maybe I was seeing this place for the first time like it really was and not as a celebrity.
I went to class late that morning and walked down the bustling street on the way to the university from the hotel. In this smaller town in Northern Asia we were the subjects of stares and considered movie stars as far as the locals were concerned. This morning, by putting on sunglasses, I inadvertently disguised my western eyes. All that was visible was my Asian skin, hair and height. This gave me the perfect vantage point to reflect and talk to my best friend about this mass of people. As motorcycles with toddlers strapped on weaved around me, I tried to sear in my memory the things I did not want to forget.
Simply getting here was no small feat. Arriving at check-in two hours early at crazy early in the morning, we discovered that one of our students had her name misspelled on the ticket. Instead of Danielle, her name was spelled Dan. Hmmmm...seems like an easy fix. Um - NO! We were told to call the Chinese airline and have them fix it because the American airline could not. The line rang busy every time. We finally got in touch with someone with only about 15 minutes to spare. Unfortunately, she was probably new to the job and could not understand what we were saying. This crazy fiasco ended in Abby hanging up on the lady, throwing her debit card at Danielle, and instructing her to buy a ticket to Seattle no matter the cost. I was stunned when Abby showed up behind me to board at the very last minute huffing and puffing with shoes in hand. We boarded the plane not knowing what was going to happen and very hesitantly turned our phones on airplane mode for a very tense flight.
When we landed, we immediately turned our phones on to discover that she was on a flight on her way to Seattle and would land in plenty of time. That ticket only cost us an extra $700! We were thankful we planned for a $600 buffer. Breathe... Now it was time to call the Chinese Airline back and get her other ticket fixed to get her to China - easy peasy. Um - NO!
This time I call and get a super helpful lady on the phone, but I was completely unaware of the obstacles we were about to face.
Find Hainan airline ticket counter and get "Dan" unchecked on the China flight because "he" apparently flew with us to Seattle and was already checked through to China.
Arrive at Hainan airline ticket counter and discover that no one is there.
Sit on floor by Hainan counter to wait for a few hours for them to open.
They arrive early! Run to them and explain the completely normal situation where "Dan" is not a real person and they need to take him off the flight.
Call to finish purchasing new ticket for Danielle.
Find out the only currency they will take is Chinese currency from We Chat, because it is the day of the flight.
Think to self - this can't be real. What century is this anyway?
Call friend in China at 1am their time hoping that she is awake. She is!!!!!
Ask her to pay for ticket with We Chat pay.
She doesn't have We Chat pay, but she finds out she can set up Ally pay - (don’t know what that is.)
Abby is informed that friend in China has 15 minutes to complete the transaction or it will be cancelled. (Meaning start all over from the very beginning and hope that the ticket is still available.)
Get disconnected from friend in China.
Friend in China calls other friend that has We Chat pay and other friend does not answer.
Friend in China works frantically to set up other payment method on a webpage that is written completely in Chinese before 15 minutes is up. (#13 and #14 were discovered after we arrived)
14 minutes later - Receive phone call from Hainan rep saying that the payment is unsuccessful.
Decide the best thing to do is to throw myself on the floor in despair. I’m living in an alternate reality where the only way to save myself from certain destruction is with Chinese currency.
I think I hear her say something else but can't understand her. I ask her to repeat herself.
She clearly says, "The payment is successful." I have so much faith, that I don't believer her. I ask her to repeat herself. She does.
I yell quite loudly. "The payment is successful!"
The 5 of us (because Danielle was still on a plane somewhere) yell, "THE PAYMENT IS SUCCESSFUL!!! for everyone to hear.
American passers-by stare at us curiously like we are not from here. (This moment prepares us for our celebrity status in the East.)
Danielle lands and we greet her like we haven’t seen her in years.
We get on plane to start our 11 hour flight feeling like we just climbed Mt. Everest with Jesus--and Now the adventure begins!
To Be Continued!