Flying into the past

I love the idea of flying west to east across the international date line into the night cutting through it to see the dawn. I also love the idea of flying east to west across the Pacific to try to stay in the light. On this flight from Beijing to San Francisco, I slept a bit, watched some programming, read, and watched some Downton Abbey. One more episode to finish the second season. Anything over six hours in a plane becomes extremely uncomfortable and a bit of a marathon. I have two hours left of this flight and I probably don't smell great or look too great. Once I get to San Francisco, I can change clothes, use some body spray, deodorant. Maybe a store will have some dry shampoo, but no certainties. I should be back in St. Louis in twelve hours and in twenty-six hours I will be heading to a rehearsal. I am going to miss that day of rest I had scheduled which was swallowed by my cancelled flight in Beijing. Luckily my room is clean and many of my clothes are clean, I just have to unpack and buy some food and caffeinated beverages. Then class on Monday. Back to busyness and not looking forward to it yet.
Now we are approaching San Francisco and the sky begins to turn blue from the black it was before. The dark of the ocean blends with the lighter azure of the sky. Then comes the line of palest yellow which fades to the palest blue with no green between - straight yellow to blue. Then we descend to the fog and I can no longer tell what is sea and sky. Slowly blue fades to white and I see the tops of clouds and pink demarcates the sky and a final horizon. The pink spreads to peach and purple and a smeared watercolor sits above the white clouds. No wonder we flew so fast to meet the dawn. The molten honey of the sun outlines the faded plum mountains of a distant fairyland. Deep purple blue darkness breaks out from beneath the clouds and I don't know if it is sea or mountains until one shows a velvety moss covering wrapped in morning gray. All becomes clear as rough mountains frame the end of the color-streaked sky but mist still obscures more past the horizon as we fly into the mist and leave clarity behind.
But the concerning thing about flying west to east across the Pacific is that technically I arrived in San Francisco before I left Beijing. I am now in the past because I have now been in two places twice at the same time. A bit trippy.

Last day in Beijing - take two

I got to the airport on time. I got through security and immigration with less fuss than I have ever experienced in China. I didn't even get the pat down that everyone else was subjected to. It was all really going too well. I sat a little bit away from the gate at a charging station watching some Downton Abbey season two I have yet to watch and painting my fingernails. Then the flight was delayed and the gate changed. They gave us a free lunch but there was a long line to get it, so I used the last of my RMB to get a sandwich. But this was no ordinary sandwich. I bought it at a cafe, thinking that would make it more normal, but instead of what I thought I saw (two sandwiches cut in half and stack on top of each other in the package), I got something else entirely. I got a single sandwich, five pieces of bread high with filling between every slice, cut in half, I would have had to unhinge my jaw to eat such a sandwich, so I ended up eating one slice at a time with filling above and below. I got some decent cheesecake to cheer me up after that. Then I watched a bit more Downton Abbey before I realized I was at the wrong gate. I had heard the woman say E36 when she was trying to pronounce E26 to me. So I went to the right gate just as they cancelled the flight. Then the fun began.

I really don't like standing in lines and the Chinese can't queue to save their lives. People cut all the time. They are more of a narrow moving clump of people than a line, so people all seem to think it is okay to move in front of people. I had to stand in a clump to go back through immigration (they opened a special place just for our flight but it was a big flight). Then I had to stand in a clump to wait for the shuttle to the hotel. Then at the hotel I had to stand in a clump to check in, but thankfully before I was in that clump too long, they gave me a voucher and told me to have dinner first so I could check in later. This seemed like a good idea and with the wifi in the hotel, I was able to email Kitz and Dad to tell them where I was. They came out after I checked into my room and I had second-dinner with them. Then we watched a bit of the Discovery Channel before they went back and I painted my toe nails while watching a show about a guy who went to Shaolin to learn karate on National Geographic I think. Anyway, I'm going to take a couple hours sleep but not too much (so I can sleep on the plane) then get up and try to leave Beijing again tomorrow.

Last days in Beijing

So the last Saturday I was in Beijing, Dad and I went to Ladies' Street to look around, but we didn't find much there. Neither my father or I are really good at shopping. We like to get what is needed and leave so going to a place with no end goal in mind is not fun. So we went on a long cold walk. I found a nice leather shoulder bag which I did not haggle hard enough for according to Kitz. Then we walked back and tried to find a shortcut back but failed miserably. We ended up in this large and rundown apartment complex that was completely walled except for the entrance we came in. So while we could see the apartment building on the other side of the wall, we had to turn around and go back the way we came and walk the long way around. After we had another stop for groceries, we got back and watched The Avengers and then started the long saga of all three extended versions of Lord of the Rings. Dad hadn't seen it for many years and we did just see The Hobbit in Korea.

Kitz was at work and got home to us with pizza watching Peter Jackson movies. She has had to work eight days straight, so she also had to work tomorrow on Sunday. Irena, Dad, and I got to church then went back home to more Lord of the Rings. We took a break when Kitz got home and watched the David Tennant and Catherine Tate play of Much Ado About Nothing, then tumbled into bed.

On my last day in Beijing, I went to the Yonghe Lama Temple. The air was filled with incense and most of the people were kowtowing to buildings, paintings, and statues. One of the Buddhas was so tall he reminded me of the giant Stay-Puff marshmallow man from Ghostbusters. I was just peering up and up at him. It really was a lovely visit. I have given up on audio tours again because of their many annoying qualities so it was nice to just walk through and see. I took so long I missed the 11:30 drum performance at the Drum and Bell towers I visited next. There was an interesting exhibit on ancient Chinese methods of time-keeping in the drum tower and more about bells and letting people know the time in the Bell Tower. They were not as nice as the temple, but decent.

Afterwards off to Qianmen to do some final shopping where I got my picture taken with three generations of a family. One woman asked for a picture, and I said yes. Then out jumped eleven or so people. We got a few then I took a picture with each grand parent individually then the grandchild individually. So that was fun. Then back to the apartment to pack. Kitz, Dad, Irena, and I went to dinner then finished up the cast commentary of The Return of the King.
The next morning Kitz was working at home as I prepared to take off for the airport and now I am breathlessly waiting for father and driver to come. They are late.

Summer Palace in Winter

So after a day of sick and coughing rest, I ventured out to the Summer Palace. Kitz and Dad were both at work, so I had to find out how to add money to the metro card and get out there on my own. I got the typical stares from the occasional person on the subway and at the Summer Palace. I got to climb around on some hills to the top of the hill with the Bhuddist temple housing an incredibly large bodhisattva right behind another temple with another large bodhisattva. I got to take some pictures of other Chinese people visiting (blonde girl by herself in China looks safe or like she won't steal a camera) and got my picture taken with some Chinese tourists. I also got a few Chinese trying their English out on me including a couple really young soldiers who seemed to only know the word "beautiful." In between this failed attempt at flirting and conversation attempts, I did get to see some amazing vistas, many with caves and stairs leading to them. Some buildings were even built directly into the rock. Despite the cold weather, I spent about five hours outside walking and wandering around. I'm still a bit sick, so wandering around the entire lake and up and down hills was not the beat decision, but I'm tired of trying to recover by lying in bed since it hasn't seemed to be helping. So I wandered and thought about the stupidity of building a marble boat. It seems completely purposeless. So did most of the bridges, but they were all beautiful.

An interesting thing was the acceptance of breaking the rules. There were signs all over the place that no one should walk on the iced lake which the Summer Palace is built around. But considering the hundreds of people walking across the lake with the police looking on, it seems like rules don't really exist

except as signs. Whole families were all walking across with babies balanced between adult hands. This was their ice skating with shoes and a short cut to walking around the lake. I thought about joining for a few seconds, but the danger of walking across a lake with warnings not to walk on it dissuaded me easily. I prefer ice skating with skates and at a place where I am not scared of falling through the ice. It probably makes me a less exciting person when I decide to not walk on a lake, but I was cold enough without being wet. Frankly, breaking the rules is exciting because it makes you different. If everyone is breaking the rules it is not as fun or exciting, so less attractive. But all the people on the ice shuffling along was beautiful.

During all my wandering and climbing, Irena called because she needed a place to stay and Kitz and Dad thought I was at home. I had Dad take a break and walk over to let her in eventually then I finished my frigid wandering and took the metro home. It was not until I warmed up and ate a very late lunch or early dinner that the cough began again. So, I stayed home for the night and watched something on television. I don't remember what.

On my own in Korea

Illness caught up with me. I've been sick since a couple days after I arrived in China, but I've just kept going with medication. You can't be sick for Christmas and traveling. But we went to The Hobbit and then back to the bookstore on New Year's Eve, and by the time we were at the bookstore and found a place to eat, I was not feeling well and in a bad mood to reflect it. We did find a great Italian restaurant to eat at and I bought some Lacan and Žižek to elevate the mood a bit then we got some food. Wait, no I was confused. We got the Italian after the bookstore. Wandering around a frigid Seoul while not feeling good turns most things into a tunnel so you only have in mind getting to your destination. You walk and walk even though you don't want to, but you keep going. Earlier when I was wandering around Seoul on medication it felt surreal, but now the medication was no longer effective and by 6 pm on New Year's Eve, I just wanted to sleep. So I did. I woke up in time to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new one, but not that much more. I believe Ken and April were having a party, but am really not too sure. 

Anyway, after so much sleeping (and a great deal of coughing), I woke up the next morning and felt slightly better. My father and Kitz were still sleeping, but Dad and I went to get some breakfast and brought something back for Kitz. We bought tickets for Les Miserables movie that night, so Kitz and Dad relaxed until then and I went out since it was my last day in Korea. They can go quite often, but it's a bit harder for me. So I ventured out with a map, some won, and no knowledge of Korean. I went to this little "traditional Korean village" they recreated in the middle of Seoul by moving five houses there from different parts of the country. They also had a ice sculpture village from New Year's celebrations. I was the only westerner there, so that was fun. I got a few strange looks, but not nearly as bad as China. People (especially old people) look at me strangely all the time. Even in Beijing. But off I went to the village and got back in time to take a taxi to Gangnam (where we see our English language movies). Kitz was getting pretty sick by this point and didn't get much out of the movie since she had a massive headache. We went back and she slept and then we left in the morning for Beijing.