Tag! You’re it!

Played laser tag on Friday. I’d gone before with a larger group of people and had a ball, but this trip was kind of a bust. We got there a bit late and the place, which had moved, was brand-new and HUGE. We were essentially the guinea pigs for the place, which was still under construction. It was in the basement of this mall-ish type of place that was being renovated, and to get to the laser tag place, we had to go down an escalator and through a bunch of storefronts that hadn’t been completed yet. It was kind of funny.

The laser tag place was gigantic. It had to be double the size of the previous one, and that really wasn’t a good thing. It was also completely dark and the ramp things up to the next level were incredibly steep, plus there were low-hanging pipes and things that made it pretty dangerous.

But mostly, it was just too big. You needed at least 20 people to make it a lot of fun, and we had about nine. I went for minutes without seeing another person, friend or foe.

Oh, and we were late. We’d reserved the place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. but didn’t get there until after 6, then for whatever reason putzed around until after 6:30. I couldn’t figure out why we were just hanging around, but I was one of two who didn’t speak the language so I couldn’t really communicate “let’s go!” to the shopkeeper.

Anyway, the games were longer than the earlier location, and as a result we’d only played three before maybe 7:50. We sat there and waffled on the next game – seriously, make a decision, people! – and finally got in. So we’re in the dark place, waiting on the guns to activate, and they never did. I looked at my watch and it said 8:03. And I had it figured out before anyone else – we’d hit out cut-off.

That’s exactly what happened. The computer system shut it down at 8 p.m., because that’s when we’d reserved the place. Some of the people in our group were just bitching and moaning about that – we paid for two hours – but hello, it was our fault. I hate it when people screw up and then blame others.

Anyway, that started my weekend. We went to a Korean restaurant afterwards and it was also just meh. I mean, the food was fine but the orderer (in China, one person places and order for the entire table) did so without consulting anyone else and we wound with way, way too much food and a really pricey bill. I don’t mind pricey food places – it’s a splurge that’s worth it – but this was expensive because it was just wasted.

Today I’ve done next to nothing. My big highlight was to help someone in the building write his work evaluation. He’s not a native English speaker, so it took some work but I was happy to help. I also did my usual grocery store run, but I did not make food for the week because somehow I have a lot left over from last week.

My big highlight, I guess, was a visit to the dentist, both professionally and socially. I was a bit overdue for a checkup and my jaw is acting up. I have TMJ (which, he explained, is really TMD – disorder vs. joint) and it’s been bothering me.

I did not know this, but as it turns out, that’s his specialty, so I got some good information, plus a textbook to research. It looks like down the road getting braces – again – would be the best long-term thing to do, but it won’t happen while I’m here.

The dentist lives in the building here and is originally from Texas. We went for a burger after the appointment and talked for awhile. He’s done mission trips to various countries and has a sister who has a house formerly owned by Ally Sheedy and next door to Molly Ringwald’s.

And, in the course of discussion, he mentioned that his wife (who’s not in China just yet) is from Eudora, Arkansas. We were walking back to the apartments at that point and I completely stopped short. I said my aunt was from there and he could not believe it. I did not know this, but it’s a tiny, tiny town and he’s convinced his wife’s family has got to know Mary Lynn’s, but we haven’t been able to determine it yet.

Just another “it’s a small world” moment.

It’s only April

Some colleagues who were supposed to come over and swim today stood me up, so I took a 20-minute walk to meet another couple for dinner. I was wearing jeans, a T-shirt and tennis shoes.

By the time I got there, I was soaked. I guess I hadn’t walked outside in awhile, and last week, it was gorgeous with very low humidity. But today it was 88 with a “feels like” of 99. On April 19. (Happy birthday, Beth!) I just forgot that you can’t wear jeans and anything with socks past, say, St. Patrick’s Day. It was just awfully muggy. I had sweat rolling down gross parts and even the knees of my jeans were sweat through; never mind the new LL Bean T-shirt.

And that’s what I am going to be in for until, oh, about September. Joy. I have my last two boxes of Junior Mints (my nightly dessert) on order and when those run out, I have to switch to LifeSavers. Chocolate in the spring, summer and early fall mail doesn’t work here.

So, despite dinner out, it was still a fairly slow weekend. I was in the office all day Saturday doing some catch-up and escort duty, which was fine by me. We had some big thing last week and since I get copies on what seems like every group email in the place, I had a ton of stuff to just sit and delete. We also have a bunch of temporary people coming in and out and I was trying to straighten some of that out, too. It’s something that changes on a daily basis.

I’m in a stretch of about a month or so where I am not leaving town. I even had a three-day weekend coming up and no plane ticket yet. It’s kind of amazing, but I’ve really emptied out my bucket list. My next solidified trip is at Memorial Day, but until then I really don’t know. We have a safari park in town and I’m trying to get one of the families to go there with me over that three-day. Otherwise, Hong Kong might call.

Next week is the dentist. I haven’t been in a year and have this jaw thing going on. We have a dentist who lives in the building and I just ran into him. He asked when we are going out and I suggested after my appointment, since I’m the last of the day on Saturday. Yay! I have plans.

Happy Empty Tomb-Sweeping!

Last week was Easter, and then we had Tomb-Sweeping Day here on Monday, so I got out of town. Did not have internet access, so I’m a bit late in getting up to speed.

We went to Zhengzhou, which is east of X’ian and about a third of the way between Shanghai and Beijing. From there, we went to Luongyon, or something like that, which was a 30-minute high speed train ride from Zhengzhou. (Checking off “take high speed train while in China” box on this one.)

It really was fun, but oh, man, it was just solid travel. First of all, we’d gotten the ticket because it was a cheap DragonAir flight from Hong Kong. Since it left at 1 p.m. and technically, Hong Kong is another country, that meant we had to be at the airport at 11 a.m., which meant no morning train would work. That meant we had to leave Friday night and stay in a hostel in Hong Kong. (And, all told, since December 2013, I have now left China 22 times.)

And that was just the start of the travel. We flew there, then got on a one-hour bus ride to the wrong train station (who knew the high speed rail didn't leave from the high speed station?), bused another hour to the right one to the right one, took the 30-minute train and another bus for an hour. Next day, it was busing to the place and then the last day it was a long round of travel for sightseeing and then returning home, which was Hong Kong, and then here. Just on the go constantly.

But traveling with Vicki was fun. There were a few minor downsides, but really, it was a great travel situation. I felt bad for her because even more than the last time, she was assumed to be local and my guide, to the point that when I tried to speak in English, they'd just look from me to her and wait for her to speak. She speaks Chinese and is a Chinese-American but California through and through. She had a hard time with some of it because people would assume she was just being stupid when she would say, "I don't understand that word." or whatever (in Chinese, of course.)

We only met two nasty people, the last one being when we were trying to find the airport shuttle. The people at this ritzy hotel (not where we stayed) kept telling her the place was “right there,” and she had no idea what they were saying, and they were honestly yelling at her. It was insane.

The other nasty one was worse, though. Once we did the airport-bus-train station-bus-train-bus thing and arrived at the hostel, it was about 10 p.m. Vicki had made a reservation at this hostel and we had a rough time finding it, but got there in due time. However, the person at the desk – seemed family-run – told her that since we did not arrive by 9 p.m., our reservation was canceled. And Vicki went postal at this, because they did NOT tell us that, plus we tried to hold it with a credit card and they refused. They’d given away our room and there was another couple there trying to claim the last “room.” Vicki was like, no, that’s ours, you owe us a room.

It was pretty ugly, honestly, but Vicki stood her ground. They found her name in the reservations thing and she kept telling them that she’d tried to solidify the reservation and the girl wouldn’t let her, so finally the pop of the operation was like, show them the room. They won’t take it anyway, he said.

Of course we did, even though it was basically a storage closet/office with a double bed, desk and a ton of cubbyholes that stored all the extra pillows, sheets and blankets in the place. It didn’t even have a number on the door! But then they tried to not only charge us for the original room (250 RMB a person for a two-bed room with a bathroom), they tried to charge us that per person. Vicki was like, no, you were just going to charge those other people (who’d left in disgust) 150 for it, so that’s what we’re paying. It was really kind of amusing.

Every time something like that happens, I think, “Sheesh, I’d never have managed that on my own. Good thing I am traveling with someone who speaks Chinese,” but then I realize that if I was not traveling with someone who speaks Chinese, I wouldn’t be traveling in China.

But we ran into far more helpful people than rude ones. Since we took the bus constantly (the whole trip was pretty cheap), Vicki would ask for confirmation we were going right, when to get off, etc. Early on, that’s how we learned we were going to the wrong bus station – the lady she asked about it said wait, did you know the high speed train doesn’t leave from the high speed train station? Surprise!

But she was great. She looked up all these options on her phone, then not only told us in explicit detail what to do upon arrival of the wrong station but also decided to go ahead and walk us through it and explain it to the powers that be. She tried to get them to exchange our tickets for ones from that station, but they were out, but she still showed us exactly where to go and how to go about it in this HUGE train station. And she wasn’t even going there herself. It just happened to be her stop.

She was a great help, as were others. One guy Vicki peppered with questions asked for a pen and paper at the end and gave us his phone number. Just very helpful people, which was nice.

The sights were cool, and once I get my disk back from Vicki (no power in the storage room to charge her phone for that day) I will post some. The city is famous for what is a temple or something carved into a mountain, Petra-like.

Back in Zhengzhou, we went to two temples that were cool, and I say that being overly sick of temples. We also ate some good noodles on the street, but that was all they had. That’s the food to eat, and that’s all they had, really. But it was good.

DragonAir, the cheap offshoot of Cathay Pacific, was awesome. The line to check in was really long and this guy came and helped us do the self check-in thing, which doesn’t usually work for international flights. Then on the way back, Vicki asked for seats together – we made our reservations independently – and specified near the front. The lady said oh, we don’t have anything in the back, so I’ll just upgrade you to business class.

That was awesome. The seats recline almost all the way, and the food was fabulous. I even had a shot of Jack to go with the Hagaan Daaz. It was quite awesome. I’d fly that airline again, but not for such a short time. And in an ideal world, I would vacation in the city that I landed in as opposed to the whole train thing, although it was nice to look up and see that “302 kilometers per hour” sign. (That’s almost 190 miles an hour.)