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!!
