“The Worst Idea Ever!!!”

            Growing out my facial hair has never been something I particularly liked to do. I have always kept it shaved. Well this last week was the Guo Qing Jie or Chinese National Holiday. Adam, a group of friends, and me had traveled to Shanghai and Nanjing for the break, since there was no school that week. Adam and I were thinking it would be convenient if we didn’t shave during the week and then shave when we got back. It saved hauling around our shavers and shaving cream, which could have been a da mafan. Adam also really wanted to get an old fashion shave by the guy under a bridge in Beijing, who had previously cut Adam’s hair a week before. I thought it would be really cool as well so we decided not to bring our razors.

            So we had gone almost nine days without shaving and we both had pretty nice looking mustaches and beards coming in. You know some of us look better than others when it comes to this type of thing. But anyways so we had decided on Monday after classes we would go to the guy and have him shave us. So Monday was there and we were ready as ever to get cleaned up to go. We ate real fast and then Adam went to find Brett to borrow his bike. We headed out on our bikes and got their pretty fast. We had to wait in line a little but that gave us time to look at how well the guy was.

            There were two men under the bridge cutting hair and hair everywhere on the ground. We waited by one man who looked like he knew what he was doing. He was cutting not only the hair but shaving the guy as well, which helped us see what it would be like. The other barber actually finished up cutting up one man’s hair and then went about twenty feet off to the side and started using the bathroom in a bush. Adam and I start laughing just at the thought that this man probably won’t wash his hands before he shaves another face or cuts some more hair. And sure enough the moment he came back he put another man in the chair and started buzzing his hair. “I am so glad I am not going to have him shave me!” I think as a chill runs down my spine just at the thought of it.

            We turn our attention back to the man who is being shaved and he is ready before the barber has told him he is done. He says, “Hao le, hao le” “I’m done I’m done”. With those words the barber agrees and lets him up. The old man looks at us as if we are in for a treat; little did we know we would be. It was now our turn and Adam wanted to go first. I let him go and Adam first negotiated the price. We had discussed before that whatever the price was the man gave us, we would go with it. The last thing we wanted was a man, who was unhappy with a price he was getting for shaving us, shaving our necks with a sharp blade/knife. So the man says ¥4, and Adam says it sounds like a deal. He sits down and the man goes off to fill us the cup full of soap like stuff that he applies to the face.

The Chinese man comes back and I start taking pictures as the man puts that stuff on Adam’s face. The man then rubs his knife on a leather strap and then takes off shaving Adam’s face. Adam had already trimmed up his sideburns before coming so it was that big of a shave. The man was determined though to get every last hair off of his face. Half way through, Adam turns to me and says, “This isn’t as pleasant as I was expecting.” He had his eyes shut the whole time and didn’t move hardly at all, which appeared to me like it was rather enjoyable. The man then finished up scrapping every last grain of hair from his face, before he said, “Hao le.” “Si kuai, duibudui?” “¥4, right?” Adam asked the man. Yea he responded. Adam then says to me, “That hurt a lot more than I expected it to.” I somewhat ignored this comment knowing he was only trying to scare me.

            Then man turned his back but Adam quickly told him that I also wanted to be shaved. The man looked at me and my ruff looking beard and mustache and said, “Ok but his is ¥5.” Adam explained this to me and I complained, “Why is mine more?” “Because you have more hair then him.” He said, pointing at Adam, who was now clean shaven. Understanding this I agreed and sat down. The man went to refill his cup full of liquid and I sat there. I knew this doesn’t happen very often, having your face shaved by an old man, like in the olden days.

            The old Chinese man then comes back with his sketchy looking cup. I let him apply this watered down substance to my face until I had it well spread across my face. I then wait while he sharpens his knife on some leather thing. He is then ready and starts on the side of my face near my side burns.

            “OUCH!!!” I think. I was in pain!! This man wasn’t just cutting my facial hair; he was cutting my face too! Well Adam is looking at me now with a smug look upon his face. If he did it, I could do it too. I sit there as the man continues to cut my hair along with the top layer of my face with it. I found myself biting my teeth together to help draw the pain away from my face. After he had finished cutting one side he switched sides to the other side of my face. But while he was moving around I open my eyes to see Adam smiling at me and I say, “I am about to start crying!” which was true because I was on the verge of tears when he had that blade against my face. I start to chuckle at the thought of how bad of an idea this was and the man yells at me to stop laughing. I shut my eyes and stop laughing as he continues to remove layers of skin from the other side of my face.

            I can’t help but think back to when Adam told me much worst that was then it looked and how I hadn’t believed him. I now started to laugh about just how truthful he was and every time I thought about that and started laughing the man would yell at me to stop laughing and/or smiling. I try my hardest but this was the most painful thing I have ever experienced. I sit there as he finishes cutting the rest of the hair. He does it rather fast, but then goes back onto my checks and sideburns, which were already cut, to get a closer shave on them. I sit there wondering how much more I can take of him trying to find every little stub of hair on my face. I will give him credit that he is very thorough, even if that does include him toughing my face with his nasty hands. I finally can’t take any more and I tell Adam to tell him I have had enough. “Hao le hao le!” “He is done.”

 I stand up and feel my face. It hurts even to touch but is super smooth everywhere. I pay him the ¥5 I owe him, and then he says something to Adam, pointing at me. I wonder what he is saying. Adam says, “Ohhhh” and then looks at my face. “What!?! What is the matter?” I ask. He responds he will tell me after we have left. I am now somewhat scared this man has disfigured my face. As we say our goodbyes and then get our bikes we head off. Once we are out of earshot, Adam and I start laughing so hard at how such a bad idea this was. I then ask him what the man said and Adam says the man cut my face!!!! “What!?! No you’re joking!!” I try to get a picture of it but can’t so Adam describes them as one on my check and one near my Adam’s apple. I can’t believe that crazy old man cut me! Adam then says that the Chinese man said it was because I kept laughing that the blade slipped. The thing is I wasn’t laughing when he was cutting, just when he lifted the blade from my face because that is when I finally breathed.

So we make our way back home and there we clean our faces up and put on stuff so our faces will stop burning like their on fire. I put on some stuff just so I don’t get an infection or something because that would be the worst way to end this blog post. But I am fine and content I am able to say I have been shaved oldies style, but man this was the worst idea we have yet. As Adam put it, “This was probably the worst, yea I would even say worst then wrecking the Alpine sled”, in which he ran into my backpack in a sled going down a mountain and broke his camera and Mao watch he had bought, “it was the worst idea we have ever had!” 

"I think I'm going Bungee Jumping"

    So we had talked about going bungee jumping for a while and I really wanted to go to a gorge that people have said wasn’t that far away. I wanted to go before the holidays and before it got cold, which meant that Saturday would be the day to do it. As Friday night rolls around, Kurt asks me about it and I say that I want to go but don’t know details and that I will have to get back to him on those, which I don’t because I fell asleep before looking them up. I wake up the next morning and realize I better look up those details if we want to go.      
   Well we look up where we need to meet and the estimated costs for the trip. I am so excited and realize we better leave this morning if we want to make it out there with time to site see and what not. I go around telling people we are leaving in an hour and I get ready myself. We finally all get ready to head out and go to the bus that will take us to a metro. We catch the bus and time is looking good. We get to the metro station and there is a white paper up and the gates are locked. It says that this metro station is temporarily closed for the holidays. “Great!!” I think, “What are the chances this station and three others out of tons of others are closed today…” Oh well, we aren’t too far from the next available station, so we get back on a bus and head out to the next metro station. 
    We finally get there and we get on the subway and finally make our way to our desired destination. As we come out we are not sure where we actually going, so instead of heading off in some random direction, which is what we have normally done, we decide to wait for the others guys to get there. They arrive and with them we walk to the bus depot where the longer bus rides take off. Finding our bus number 919 wasn’t too hard; it was finding the end of the line of people trying to get on that bus which was actually the hard part. So there we are standing in line and I am wondering if this line is even moving. We decide to ask a fellow in front of us how long it will take to get on the bus. “Xuyao deng liang ge xiaoshi.” I didn’t understand so I turn to Tina for a translation, she says, “I believe he said two hours.” Not wanting to hear that or believe it takes that long I ask Adam to ask the guy. “Liang ge xiaoshi.” Well I guess it will take two hours. And this is the moment when our faith in going bungee jumping began to wane. We started talking about maybe not going if it took that long to get up there and all, we wouldn’t have much time to site see. Adam pretty much decides to go another day, but I want to wait a little longer to see if the line moves at all. We wait and after about three minutes of no line moving, I decide that it is best if we do it another day. As I start to step out of line I feel as if I am being sucked into a vortex or something and I wonder what is going on. I look up and realize there is a group of people climbing onto a bus…BUS 919!!! I am being pulled by this group of people towards this bus. I turn to the others and say, “I think I’m going bungee jumping today!” I am quickly joined by Adam, Abby, and Tina. I realize it is better if we instead of coming from the back of this group, go to the side of it, by the bus, and push ourselves into the crowd from the side. And so I bring out that inner Asian in me and start pushing my way onto that bus. 
   I look up to realize no one is moving anymore and the reason for which is there is a hefty looking woman swinging her weight around at the mouth of the bus yelling, “haizi, haizi, haizi!!!” Child, child, child!!! The mother or family member of this baby was determined to get this baby on board and no one was getting on until she had her baby. After the baby somewhat crowd-surfed into the lady’s arms, the pushing and shoving resumed to get onto the bus. After the initial pushing you actually become enveloped by other people also pushing their way onto the bus so you are actually carried by them. Adam and I make our way to the door and as we both grab a bar on the inside of the bus, I think, “Oh yea I am for sure getting on this bus now.” If is funny how the pushing never stops, even once you are on the bus. Adam and I made a wall in front of the bus door between the two of us and because Abby was right behind us we were able to let her squeeze between us so she would make it and Tina quickly followed after the three of us were on the bus. “You can’t get on!” shouts the lady directing the oncoming flood of people onto the bus. “I want on!” responded Adam. After a hefty exchange of sayings such as: you are on the wrong bus, no we are not, we are not going to that stop, yes you are, please get off this bus, there is no room, and Adam’s comment “We will sit on the floor if we have to!”, she allowed us on the bus, which only had standing room only, or sitting room if you sat on the floor of the aisle, which is where we did end up sitting. 
    “How long is this bus ride?” asked Adam to a nicer looking fellow on the bus. “20 minutes”, he responded. “Really? That quick?” we thought. Well not sure if that was a correct answer, Adam asked three other people and surprise surprise, we received three different answers, all ranging from twenty minutes to a couple hours. So we decided to wing it and go with the flow. After the first half hour we all got pretty tired, so we all sat down on the ground to relax a little. It seemed almost like a miracle that we were able to be let on that bus, especially since we were the ones that wanted to go a different day. It seemed that with the Lord’s help anything is possible, and things can happen in the most unexpected ways. 
    And so there we were heading to Long Qing Xia, or Long Qing Gorge. So as we sat down, Adam and Abby talked with this cute little girl that spoke English pretty well. As I watched them talk to her and ask her things in English, I feel Tina’s head burrow into my shoulder, thinking she must be pretty tired I guess. The problem was she was half laughing, half crying and so I asked her what was up? “Oh nothing!” she says. Giggle giggle. Ok well if that is nothing I am insane. I ask her again and come to find out there is a mother who is throwing up right beside her in a bag. I feel disgusted and turn slightly around to catch a glance of her. I understand now but then a few minutes later, Tina hides her head in my arm again saying, “Oh now it’s her son!” And yea that would explain most of the ride to the bus stop. We talked a little on the bus and enjoyed most of the ride but man was it hard to ignore the bags the lady was using, now full and tied up, sitting on the floor next to Tina and myself. 
   So finally we make our way to the desired stop and switch buses and continue on our travel until we reach a place where we take a taxi to get to the entrance of the park. We thank the taxi driver, as we exit his car and make our way to buy a ticket to enter the park. Being a student in China certainly does have its pros, because for most parks and such we can get half off price with our student cards. So we are in and now we are kind of hungry, but the others do not want to eat, for fear that whatever they eat now will surely come back up at the time of the bungee jumping. So we look at a map and find our bearings on the map. We see we must take a boat ride up the gorge to the place where we will be bungee jumping. So we find where we must go and we buy our tickets for the boat ride. This boat ride was one of the most exciting and beautiful rides I have been on. This was one of those rides that is hard to describe in words the beautiful landscape, the multicolored mountains on each side of the gorge and the peaceful sensation of being on a boat. It was a really beautiful ride that pictures do not do justice to capture. These are one of those places that you need to experience firsthand. As we made our way up the river we see the bungee jumping spot up above us. 
   For some reason after having already jumped a couple times in Idaho, I thought this jump was really small. But we made our way to the place where we signed our names down to bungee jump. After writing our name, weight, and paying our ¥150, which personally I thought was very simple to have permission to jump off a bridge with a cord attached to your feet; they directed us to the bridge. So there we were, waiting to be the next ones to jump. All four of us are up there, waiting around anxiously. It was very interesting because they said that we would all be jumping off the left hand side but all the Chinese people were all jumping off the right side. So thinking of something funny I turn to the others and say yea we are jumping off the Waiguoren side “the foreign people side”. Since Adam is really good at playing along he adds to it and says maybe it will be safer…hopefully. Well the Tina was like “What there is no way that can be true…oh my goodness no one is jumping off that side…what if it isn’t safe” and Abby was like “Oh my…” We laughed a little but then we said we were just joking and that it went by weight and the Chinese people are actually really tiny so they need smaller cords. And then for some reason I was getting really nervous, and start to pace on the bridge. Everyone else seems really calm for having not jumped before. I was just excited to see the others face on their jump. So we decide that I will film the jumps and so that means Adam jumps first, followed by Abby and Tina, and then I followed up last. I think it was funny because once they started to get Adam ready to jump, they asked Tina if she could go second. I was laughing at the mere shocked expression on her face. So each jump was unique and different so I will try to explain the different jumps. 
    Adam jumped and was very stiff and was a pretty good jump for the most part. He asked to jump by himself, without being pushed and they allowed him to do so. When one jumps we finish bouncing all over the place and come to a nice just hanging upside down by my ankles feeling. Well after the jump they lower the cord down to a boat in the water and they untie your ankles and drive you to shore. So Adam was very rigid when jumping and I saw the words on his face say, “What am I doing? This is China, there is no way this is safe!” as he is falling. 
    As Adam was preparing to jump, they looked at the cards and decided to make Tina jump second which took her by surprise I am sure. They tie her feet up and then tape her stomach up like tape was going out of style or something. So Tina was ready and getting closer to the edge of the platform, the Chinese man persistently assisting her to the edge. The man then asks her to put her arms up, holds on to her belt, smiles and then pushes her. Her face was priceless. It was a mixture of “I just got pushed” and “I wasn’t ready yet”. So she fell and you didn’t hear a scream until she got to the bottom of her jump and then she yelped and giggled from the jump. She was funny because on her way down she was kicking as if that was going to help her or something. But to her it was a successful jump. 
     So then it was Abby’s turn to get ready for the jump. She was funny to see get ready because you could tell she was nervous and yet very excited to jump off a random Chinese bridge in China. She also seemed somewhat gitty as the man hooked up the ankle bracelets to her feet and then taped her stomach up. She was even funnier as she got close to the edge of the platform and this is what I imagined her saying: “Um ok where do I go?” “No don’t take my hand off the rail!” “Ok fine I will raise my hands but hang on this looks really scary…” And that was when Abby was pushed off the bridge. She first started to fall and started flailing her arms as if to fly. Then seeing that wasn’t working, she pulled her hands into her body and kicked. I don’t know what it is with girls and kicking when they are falling but every time I go bungee jumping, there is always a girl that kicks like she is swimming or something when she falls. I know that those two sensations, falling and swimming, are very close so kicking why falling is completely understandable… So after she fell for her first big jump, she went really limp like she passed out but there was still her audible short outbursts of screams at being pushed off a bridge.
     So then it was my turn. Adam actually made it back up to the top before I jumped so I was able to give him my camera. I was nervous and didn’t know what was going on as the little Chinese man was tightening the ankle straps to my feet. I remember thinking, “Please tighten these a little more…listen all I’m saying is that these better not fall off!” I then stand up, take a breath, ask the man if I can jump by myself, which he agrees to, and then I step toward the platform. For some reason standing up on the platform the distance to fall starts to multiply and get really far. It didn’t help that that Chinese man was “helping” me to the edge. He was now holding onto my belt and asking me to raise my hands. I had just watched him push two of my friends off a bridge, you just know those kind of people can’t be trusted. I kept repeating “ziji” meaning “myself” and finally the guy was like, fine jump by yourself and let go of me. I turn back to the platform, still wondering if this man would get a cheap shot and push me anyway. But I take a deep breath and think “here we go…again!” The sensation was a lot more fun this time then the last time I jumped. I knew the point was to keep your hands down and your feet above your head. So I did so and I actually enjoyed it. 
     I was then being held upside down by the bungee cord and was slowly being lowered into a boat about twenty feet below me. I have tons of blood rushing to my head and an adrenaline rush so I yell to the people in the boat, “Nimen hao!” “Hello guys!” I tried unsuccessfully to carry on a conversation because they were preoccupied trying to hand me some stick to help direct me to the boat. I hear them say “zuo, zuo, zuo” “sit, sit, sit” as I grab hold of the end of the stick. Ok first this stick is like 6 feet long so I am nowhere near the ability to sit down and second I am still hanging by my feet. So I am lowered a little more and they say “zuo, zuo, zuo” a little more firm than the previous time. I am still dangling by my feet and still wondering how I could but little by little the rope descended to a where I could now sit. They quickly untied the straps around my feet and then we were off to the docks so I could get to shore. I was joined with the others where we get a picture off a bridge that we had just jumped off. 
     Then as we talk about the experience I hear Tina say, “That was so fun, I want to go again!” “What?!?” we respond. Then she started giggling/ laughing as she said that she really enjoyed that jump. Well we decided we didn’t have time but maybe who knows we might all go together again. We wait a minute to catch our breath as we watch some other jumpers. One kid jumped and his shoe came off, which looked like it happened because the strap was slipping off. Kind of scary but glad we survived. Then there was a girl that jumped and she jumped really weird and got whip lashed all over the place. I then hear Adam nervous chuckle and I ask him what. He says that before I jumped there was a girl up there that was really nervous and she asked if it was going to hurt. He responded that it didn’t hurt at all and that it was fun. Adam was now wondering if that was the girl he talked to because if so, he said he feels like a liar if that was her because that looked like it hurt. 
     Well we were off and ready to do more things. We made our way to some cool cave that was located a short boat ride away. We took the boat and got pictures with everyone on board and had some fun. We get to this “cool” cave and pay to go inside. As we set off inside this cave, I start to realize, as does everyone else with me, that it is a fake. We start walking down this “cave” and see that everything has been created and when I say everything I mean everything; the water, the plants, the birds, the miniature people, the grass and trees, and even the rocks on the wall were probably fake. I really didn’t get why they would have a fake cave, but then Adam said it reminded him of the ride “It’s a Small World” and I would have to agree with him, this was a Chinese version of that. I was really confused at what I was looking at, so I asked Adam if he wanted to climb over the railing with me to act like animatronics. Yea so do you ever get those random urges to act like animatronics in some fake cave? Well this was one of those moments. So we jump the railing and start moving like robots and then all these Chinese people thought this was the best part of the cave: a bunch of foreigners acting like robots. So then when we had our fun and/or got in trouble we got out of there. 
    We made our way to the exit after some picture taking and finally got to the nearest town thanks to a guy in a midget car who gave us a taxi ride in it. We were really hungry and wanted to look for some food. We looked around and found some close restaurants but they were all expensive. I wanted to keep looking around so we walked down to the next set of restaurants and in the mist of these next few was a small convenient store. Happily we stocked up on food, grabbing Oreos, cookies, drinks, and anything that looked good because we had not eaten like all day. This was a real miracle and a blessing that we ran into this store because right after that we had to run to catch one of the last buses back to Beijing that night. We hopped on it and then found some nice open seats and then began to eat. We had set off and were recounting our experiences and such when we hear a little squeak come from Abby. “I think there is a rock in my cookie.” She says. Somewhat laughing somewhat curious we turn to her and ask to see it. She puts it back into her mouth to make sure that it is indeed a rock and then hands it over to us. It was indeed a rock that was in her cookie. It was an interesting story for sure and I just hope that it one story I can live through others without personal experience. But other than that we made it home safe that night. So this day was really good and we had so many experiences, and then when something like finding a rock in your cookie happens, you just have to shrug your shoulders and say TIC!!!

Welcome to China

     After over 24 hours of traveling on planes and overlays (having meet Brother Galer, Abby Paulsen, Emily Peterson, and Kayli Winger in Seattle during one of those overlays), I finally arrive at the Beijing Airport. Did I understand any of the Chinese characters as I looked around? Not at all, but I was still so excited to be there. So as we emptied off the plane and waited for our little group to get together I took in my surroundings and that is where it hit me, I was not in America (or any western country for that matter) anymore. So we then headed off and as we exited the terminals area to search for our luggage we were greeted by a young Chinese fellow who went to school at Capital Normal University, where we would be staying too. This young man said he would wait over by the exit area for Betsy (another girl in our group), who would be arriving soon. Brother Galer looked at his noted and then said to us that we actually have a couple of hours until her flight comes and then he goes on to ask one of us if we want to go tell the young man that. I felt pretty confident to say this little phrase in Chinese (having spent almost 5 hours trying to talk/ trying to understand a Chinese man I had the opportunity to talk to on the flight over here) and so I said I would tell him. I head over to where he is standing thinking how I can say Betsy is arriving in 2 hours but when I open my mouth to say something I say, “Betsy…ta… hui lai…..liang nian.” Betsy…she…will come……two years. The young man looks at me like what are you talking about and then I know I have not only know idea what I just said but I have no idea how to speak Chinese either. So then I start to say Brother Galer’s name and then he came over and explained what he wanted me to say in fluent Chinese. But luckily the young man was right and she was arriving just then so we didn’t have to wait long for her before we headed off to the Capital Normal University campus.

            We arrive at the University around 11:30 local time and many of us if not all are exhausted and are ready to go to bed. So after some quick registrations we receive our room keys and are told we can go to our rooms. We all start to head off and three of us with our luggage get into an elevator to go to our rooms, and because there wasn’t enough room on the elevator he said he was going to take it when it came back down. And so we are talking about what we are going to do tomorrow and such (already being like best friends) we didn’t have time to get off of the elevator. So first the elevator goes to my floor (the third floor) and then closes before I get off so we go up to the fourth floor where the others are supposed to be getting off, but we are still talking so much that they didn’t get off either before the doors closed again and it takes us down to my floor again and as I say good bye trying to unload my luggage from the elevator the door closes on me yet again. When the elevator doors open again we see a very surprised Brother Galer standing looking at us and then says, “Having elevator trouble?” He finds room to climb on and then we go up to my floor yet again and finally I climb off the elevator before it closes.

Having said my good nights I am able to head to my room and realize that I am actually right across the hall from Emily and her roommate Tina. I say hi as I search for my room card and as I scan the door reader it beeps loudly and blinks red. Red is never a good sign, I don’t care what country you are in. So I scan it again and it does the same thing. I then ask Emily how she got into her door and she said it flashed green and let her in. I see no other option so I head downstairs to the front desk and tell them, “Zhe ge ka….bu hao!” This card….not good! They look like they understand and then they take my card scan it on something and then give it back to me. I ask them if it’s good and they say it is. I head back upstairs to where I left my stuff outside the door and thinking “I can now finally go into my room.” I scan my card. BEEP!! Another red flash! I am really confused now and start wondering if I am even at the right door. I recheck my number and it is indeed 325 but for some reason my card doesn’t want to work. After being suggested to knock on the door from my friends across the hall, I then just decide to knock on the door and after I knock a few times I hear someone move around inside. I see the door open and I get ready to say hi to my new roommate this semester.

The door opens and I see a very annoyed very sleepy looking person that looks like I had just woke him up (which I did). He seems to understand right away that I am his roommate and invites me in without saying anything to me. He turns the lights on and points to the bed closest to the door and says, “That one’s yours and these are too”, motioning to a set of drawers and a cabinet. He then turns to me and says, “You know what, if you want to, you can keep the lights on for as long as you want, if you want to unpack, ok? I can sleep with the lights on!” With this said he climbs into his bed without another word. I am not sure what to make of this so I just put my bags down, change into my pajamas, shut off the lights, and hop into bed. I drift off to bed really fast.

I wake up the next morning at 5:00 without even an ounce of fatigue in me. I look over and my roommate is up as well and feeling just as well. We end up just getting up and dressed and introduce ourselves. Adam Duncan(as his name turns out to be) and myself then head out to get some breakfast on the street. Adam is a returned missionary from Taiwan and so his Chinese is really good. He is also really cool and a fun guy to be around. We get something to eat and then are able to talk a bit more before meeting up with the rest of our group and going over rules and such. So although the first experience seemed a little different and confusing about how everything would turn out, things did turn out ok. Even my room key started working the next morning!TIC!!