I arrived at JFK with my parents last Thursday and it was a madhouse. My nerves had been jittering the entire car ride, so once I said goodbye to my parents and was completely on my own, the feeling got even stranger. Thus, the moment I got to the gate, I headed straight for the Martini Bar at the airport and ordered a Pinot Grigio...and I must have looked absurd to the people at the gate because I literally plopped my pillowpet down on the bar stool next to me. Surprisingly, I didn't get carded. On the other side of me, sat an Italian man who began chatting me. He was a bit off and I didn't want to talk to him at first, but in the end it was a good distraction to my nerves.
He told me about how he was married for a year and a half to this American woman. However, he didn't have a green card yet and would travel back and forth from Naples to Long Island, where they lived together. He began showing me pictures, which turned out to be a riot. I would have never expected this man to whip out Vegas-style wedding photos of his fake-tan, fake-blonde wife. Somehow the conversation moved to soccer, American football and eventually the reason for my travels.
It took a lot of time for him to process that I was moving to Vietnam. The language barrier caused him to think I was going to Vienna, Austria to which he shouted "Austriche!!" Eventually, he got the memo that it was Vietnam rather than Austria and he was deeply confused as to why I was going there. I'm also pretty sure he was confused about the location of Vietnam because when I said it was warm weather because it was close to the equator, he responded, "Yes, Ecuador, the Galapagos!" He then asked me how old I was and I responded 22. He pushed himself backward and told me that he thought I was 16. I asked if the pillowpet was the reason, and he laughed. I was slightly offended but payback quickly ensued when he took off his white-guido sunglasses and asked me to guess his age. I said 40 when he was actually 35, so our age assumptions were equally insulting. Soon enough, I bid him adieu and boarded my plane.
From the moment I stepped on Air China, I was a minority. 80% of the people on the flight were Chinese and the other 20% were only traveling through China. We all missed our second planes--to Thailand, Vietnam, etc. Thus, for 24 hours we were all STUCK IN CHINA.
I had a near panic attack when the lady at the transfer desk told me that I had to catch a flight the next day and that my plane was already leaving. I was alone and terrified with a pillowpet under my arm and absolutely clueless of my next move. I latched onto these two Persian men traveling separately and another Indian man. They were all supposed to get on a flight to Bangkok and were in the same situation as me. One of them, I called big brother in my head because that's how he was acting. He made sure I knew where I was going, waited for me at customs, etc. The other one was livid, screaming about how he was a gold member and how he hated Chinese people to their face. On a side note, I am 90% he was from the reality TV show, Shahs of Sunset. At the moment, I was angry I didn't watch the show and was unable to tell if my speculations were true. Regardless, I was embarrassed for him and his rude, reality TV personality. At the other end of the spectrum was the Indian man, whom I called Gandhi in my head because he was forever trying to calm down the begrudged Persian man and make peace of the misery we were all in.
Eventually, us four misfits found ourselves at some strange hotel just outside of Beijing airport. When we arrived, they told us we either had to share rooms or pay extra. The angry Persian man absolutely lost it and because he was a Business Class traveler, they gave him his own room. I was less fortunate at first and ended up with some American girl on vacation in my room. However, she was nice and ended up booking a 3am flight out of her own pocket and so I had the room to myself. The room wreaked of cigarettes and the hotel all in all was so strange. I went from being confused, to bursting out in tears, to watching Breakfast at Tiffany's, to nonstop texting Kevin, Chris and my family.
I took a video of a hotel (wedding?) event because I needed to show someone what a weird place I was in.
When I was parting from this not-so-lovely place, I sat in the lobby and saw some more people that had been in the same situation as me. I had recognized them but they weren't apart of my Persian-Indian gang on the way there. There was an older Vietnamese woman, an American and a Bhutanese girl. They were all lovely. The Vietnamese woman spoke very little English but she jumped for joy when she realized I was going to Vietnam. The guy was named Christopher and he was so incredibly kind to this woman and made sure she was taken care of because she was very concerned and spoke little English. She kept calling him Christopher, my son!
We were all told by Air China to be in the lobby at 15:00 for airport pickup. However, when we arrived at the airport, which was about 10 minutes away, they told us it would be another hour until we could get our tickets. Thus, we all decided to sit down at a cafe and order cappuccinos. I had gone to the bathroom and came back and asked what I owed to pay. They said nothing, to which I protested I wouldn't allow them to pay for me. At that moment, Christopher leaned in and said to me, "What if you are meant to sit down and have a free cappuccino and a nice conversation with some people you just met in China." This immediately relaxed me and made the whole mess of a situation feel okay.
Christopher was 38 and was the same age as UT, the Vietnamese woman's daughter. This is another reason why she loved him so much. At the moment I can't remember the Bhutanese girl's name, but she was so friendly, spoke English very well and gave me her card. She told me that whenever I wanted to come to Bhutan, she would show me around. I can't believe I'm at a loss for her name right now, but I have her information in one of my bags and I definitely want to write her and find out how the rest of her journey went.
We all talked about life, happenstance and literature. Christopher wrote down three of his favorite books in my moleskin. He told me that those three books changed his life and I feel like because we all shared this unconventional travel experience together, I'm somehow meant to read them.
When it was time to go to our gates, I took UT and made sure her bags went through, her ticket was set, etc. She was so grateful to all of us for helping her. She kept offering us money and we kept telling her that was absurd. We compromised that we would try to come visit her and she would cook us her famous egg rolls. She lives about 2 hours south of Ho Chi Minh City and I have her address and phone number now. Because I had helped her with her ticket, etc. the Air China employee put us in the seats next to each other. It was really a cool experience getting to know her.
UT told me that she had lost her husband when her daughter was born, lost her mother when she (herself) was born and ended up being raised by her aunt--not to mention she was born in 1945 and lived in Vietnam through the war. She had a hard life but a positive outlook. I truly hope to visit her in Vietnam and learn more about her life.
Here is a picture of Beijing airport and another one of UT and I.
I will post more about actually being here in Vietnam, but I thought I would firstly share my journey because getting there is half the battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment