Was woken up at 7:28am by the phone. It was an Olympic volunteer inquiring why I wasn’t on the shuttle bus to the airport? I explained that I wasn’t scheduled to travel until tomorrow morning.
I got out my itinerary and verified for the thousandth time, my flight was indeed on August 25th.
It was okay that I was woken up by the call – I had wanted to get up early anyway. I had stayed up until 2:30a – trying to get back on East Coast time. My intent is to run my last minute errands and then go to bed this afternoon. Get up around 10p or so and finish packing, etc.
Well… things didn’t go that way. For the first time in 5 weeks, I have some stomach issues. Either the lamb or the sake I had last night, or both?
I laid doubled over in bed until 9a. Decided to get up and go figure out what was going on in logistics with my travel issues.
Before that, I went to breakfast to say goodbye to a few people. I knew most of the crew was leaving this morning.
As I walked out of the restaurant, the hotel manager comes up to me asking when I was paying my bill. I thought she meant the things I had charged to my room over the past 3 weeks (dry cleaning, room service, etc) – so I told her later this evening, I would come down and review the bill. Then I realized she meant for my hotel room for tonight. What?
So I immediately took her over to the Olympic Info desk and had them translate for me. For some reason, B.O.B. had told the hotel they were not paying for my hotel room tonight. I don’t think so!
I won’t bore you with the details… it was 1.5 hours of translation issues, phone calls to B.O.B. in Beijing, and possibly me raising my voice more than once. I believe I said many times, “I just want to go home!”.
Apparently, it was mistakenly noted in my travel profile with B.O.B., that I wanted to stay an extra day in Qingdao to see the sites. So instead of sending me home on August 24th (today), they scheduled me for August 25th. This is not something I knew about – until now. That is why B.O.B. was expecting me to pay for the hotel room tonight.
Anyway, it all did get resolved, at no expense to me. However, I am outraged that I could have been on my way home right now. But I am not, because some idiot made a mistake on my travel profile.
I sat in my room and pouted for awhile.
Then remembered I still had that stupid flat tired bike to deal with. I was gonna give it to the hotel manager to give to an employee – but had a better idea. The Olympic volunteer who helped me get my travel straightened out. She was so pleasant and patient as I yelled about my travel being screwed up. She was the one who earned the bike.
Feeling guilty about the flat tire, I put 100 Yuan and the padlock keys in an envelope and went downstairs. She was busy assisting a group getting on the shuttle to the airport, so I asked her how late she worked – 3pm. I told I would be back later, that I had a gift.
I ventured out for my last walk down Hong Kong Blvd. to Jusco (mall). I was feeling somewhat nostalgic until a passerby inhaled a big snot and spit on the sidewalk in front of me. Yah… that’s China for ya!
Another tid-bit I have yet to share… they are big spitters here. And not just a little spittle... they work that stuff up and put a lot of effort into it. A lot of sound effects. It has brought Christina and I to the verge of puking many times over the past few weeks.
As usual, Jusco is a zoo. Not quite as smelly as Carrefour, but just as zoo-like. I was looking for the music store. Billy had told me there was a music store that had some American music in it. So I wanted to check it out.
It was really small and hot. Just like every other store in China! It took me a long time to find the American music because everything is in Chinese – so it was hard to figure out how the music was sorted.
I found several CDs for friends… all CDs we already own, however, it is funny to see the covers in Chinese. And super cheap! Like $7 USD for a double CD set.
By far, the biggest U.S. sensations there have to be Kenny G. and Yanni. They both have about 30 different CDs each.
I walked around the mall a little more and gave up. I was sick of the smells and sweating. So I headed back to the hotel.
Again, the walk back gave me time to reflect and think about my time here. Have learned so much, but think I will be content with the memories. No need to come back.
Have I mentioned that I can not stop sweating?
Got back to the hotel and found the Olympic Volunteer – I don’t even know her name – I told her I would like to give her my bike. She was so happy! On the way to the parking garage, I handed her the envelope with the keys and money and explained the problem with the tire – but I hoped I have her enough money to fix it. She kept thanking me and I told her that I had been looking for the right person to give it to, and she was the one. She helped me get home!
We talked about the U.S. She studied for one year at Missouri State. I had been wearing a Michigan State t-shirt earlier in the day, so she thought I went there. She was still a student – of course I forget what she is studying – but goes to Qingdao University.
Anyway, I felt good. I was helping someone who had helped me.
I went to my room and slept for about 3 hours.
How about a tour of my room…..
It’s pretty messy as I took these yesterday – my room was in the midst of piles for packing.
Welcome to Room 1006!
This is how you 'announce' either "Do Not Disturb" or "Housekeeping Needed"
Mini Bar pile of ditry laundry
Home Sweet Home
Twin beds - never fails, I end up in the crack!
Uneven counter top - everything slides into sink eventually
Got up in the evening and ventured out for one last dinner. Went to the Italian place down the street that I had been to many times.
Olympics had been over for 1 day and they had already changed the menu!
Once I got back to the hotel, I did a few more postcards and got them down to the business center before it closed. Costs more, but don’t want to deal with China Post ever again!
Got 99% packed. Yowza! Have to leave some stuff behind – luggage is bulging!
But the housekeepers should enjoy…
Going to bed… it’s about 10:30. Have to be up no later than 5:30a.
No comments:
Post a Comment