Iceberg

HK Part 2

This Hong Kong trip started out back and forth. First, the car that picked me up from the penthouse where I now live was the most luxurious sedan Mercedes Benz I’d ever seen in my life. It was like riding in first class in a car, only much nicer. I enjoyed the quick drive to the airport and looked for where I should check in. I walked up to the desk for the economy class check-in for Xiamen Airlines. She asked where I was going and I told her, Hong Kong. She said what like 5 times. I didn’t think Hong Kong was hard to understand. But she said I had to go to a different area to check in. She mumbled some numbers and letters, which I did not understand, and went straight to the information screens. It said check-in was at H-16, so that’s where I went. But it was for business class check-in. I went up anyway. They said I wasn’t in business class. I said I know. They said to go check in at economy. I said ok where is that? She pointed somewhere so I went there. It was check-in for China Southern airlines. But whatever, I blindly trusted this woman. And she was correct. Although I don’t know why the check-in had to be such a confusing mess. I hate not knowing details.

Finally after making it through security without any problems. I saw a Starbucks and went in to get my usual…only they didn’t have any more chocolate muffins. So it wasn’t even worth it. I left to find my gate. People reading this should know, when you’re in an airport and there are moving sidewalks, they are so you can get places faster, not so you can be so extremely lazy and stand on it waiting for it to drag you 25 yards. Seriously, people, how can you be that lazy?! Anyway, I sat at my gate for a while and played some games on my phone. Then my stomach started to growl, so I went looking for those delicious cookies I got last time I was in this airport. But I couldn’t find it so I went back to Starbucks, hoping that magically some muffins had appeared. And they had! I got my yummy warm chocolate muffin and lemon tea. I almost went back for seconds, but my plane was supposed to leave in a few minutes.

But when I returned, the screen at my gate said “Delayed,” but didn’t explain why. I also hate not knowing why. And after sitting here, waiting for some information, a lady came on the PA system and said “Flight number CZ5555 from Hangzhou to Shenzhen will be delayed due to air traffic control.” I thought, well that’s a very vague reason to be delayed, she went on. “The expected departure time will be announced later.” UGH!! Not helpful at all. I hate airports at this point. I just want to know why! I’ve been angry about this ‘why’ subject this past week because the internet won’t connect to my tablet, only upstairs. It works fine downstairs, but when I go up to my room, nothing. Actually it does connect, it just says ‘limited.’ Which is even worse because I can’t know why! I understand if it’s not connected. I can fix not connected. But limited? It might as well say, ‘no connection, no reason.’

I really need to calm down. The last few days have been really stressful for me. I just found out I had to go to HK two days ago. So there was no time to really plan or get ready enough or anything. Then, the person booking everything for me booked a youth hostel for me to stay overnight in HK. This might just be the snob in me talking, but I felt kind of offended. I mean I’m not extravagantly wealthy, but I have enough dignity to stay in at least a 3 star hotel. (No offence to people who enjoy staying in those. You are much more adventurous than I.) So with the looming trip fast approaching plus the notion of sleeping in a room with a stranger plus Jonathan being especially defiant, disrespectful, and dismissive this week, I just really wanted a margarita and some tacos. Joanna bought some Tostitos and salsa last time we went shopping and every time I eat them all I can think is how good this would go with a margarita.

My seat number on this plane is 46K. When I saw this I was very confused. I started trying to figure out if it would be a window, aisle, or middle seat. But K is so far in the alphabet. Even if it were a window seat, that would mean the aisles would go 4 3 4, and that just doesn’t make any sense. And 46^th row, that’s a big plane. But then I remembered last time I flew to HK, the very first seat was 17 or something. That also doesn’t make sense, but I don’t care what the reason is. So just while I was writing that sentence they announced my plane would be leaving in an hour and 20 minutes.

A chain smoker just sat next to me and is either reading this as I write it, or staring blankly at my screen trying to decipher English letters. And the woman sitting across from me has her legs spread so wide, you can see her undies, so I moved to the nearby Häagen-Dasz and got a small ice cream because I think its rude to sit in a restaurant and not order their food. I rarely eat healthy in airports. But airports are like a different world where IQs get lower and prices get higher.

I really don’t like that I can only post when I’m in HK or out of the country. And now, with this new visa, I’ll only be able to post every 3 months. Unless I can get a VPN, which is hard to find since the Great Firewall block all the VPN websites! I have no place to go where I can mindlessly browse other people’s events and information. But it had made me very creative in eliminating my boredom. Just the other day I was riding the elevator with my new Ayi. Let’s come back to that in a minute. Most westerners would immediately pull out their phone and look at Facebook in that type of situation, but I couldn’t. So I practiced my Chinese and told her about my family. I told her there were 5 of us and I said everyone’s name and whether they were a mama, baba, didi, or meimei. She was impressed. I knew this because she gave me no one, but TWO thumbs up!

So the new Ayi is perfect. She cleans everything every day, whereas the last Ayi was very choosy with what she cleaned. And she never cleaned my room. For this paragraph’s sake, the new Ayi will be referred to as Ayi 2.0. Ayi 2.0 smiles and has gentle conversations with people, while Ayi was either silent and angry, or yelling in Chinese with a very mean face. Ayi 2.0 laughs where Ayi would scoff. And Ayi 2.0’s cooking is ridiculously amazing. Last night we had shredded potatoes, dried beans, eggplant cooked in bean juice, roast beef, and of course, rice. And watermelon for desert. We have more watermelon in our kitchen than a watermelon farm. But I scarfed down that dinner like I hadn’t eaten in days. But I wasn’t even that hungry, it was just that good! I told Ayi 2.0, “Wǒ xihuan.” Which is Chinese for I like it! I have, however, still not started slurping my rice; and I never will! I am still a Southern gentleman. That much will never change.

I started writing a novel last week. I’ve tried this before, but it never worked out. The first time I wrote and wrote and wrote but there was never a conflict. There always has to be conflict. Then other books just didn’t develop or didn’t pan out how I wanted. But this time I did it right. I’ve spent weeks doing research on the time period (19^th century England) and having all my characters prepared right down how many sugars they like in their tea. I think this one will be the one. I know it’ll take LOTS of time and thinking, but I decided I’m prepared to give it that. I won’t give any details, but I will say it’s a murder mystery. And after all my research, I’m fairly certain none of these characters exist in real or fictional life, nor has this plot ever been written before. I haven’t even finished the first chapter, because I keep going back and re-writing and editing and changing words and adding setting.

Here’s what I did. First, I wanted a book with lots of dialog. Because whenever I’m reading, I’m almost always only interested in the dialog. I also didn’t want to write it in traditional 3^rd person omniscient. I wanted it to be present, fly on the wall type of writing, so the reader could imagine being there, seeing and hearing everything. But then I realized that took away from the setting. So I went back and added very vivid descriptions of the setting, but then it sounded weird in the present, so I went back and made it stupid 3^rd person omniscient. Oh well. Then I was reading an article on novel writing and it said that every good story has something in common: a fool. Someone who provides comic relief and a little humor to the story. I didn’t have one, so I went back and wrote one in. And it turns out, I like him even more than the main character. Oh, another thing my past novels had was backstory. But you’re not supposed to give a back story! Apparently it’s better to weave it into the characters’ present. So I made sure not to give any back story, even though that is always a vital part of the big picture. But I guess it is more fun for the reader to figure it out themselves. Plus it gives everyone an air of mystery, and I always like reading characters like that myself. So it’s pretty much a mystery where the reader tries to solve it before the detective in the story. I like that idea, so others are bound to as well.

Not that I’ve given you a detailed background on my novel that will come out in probably 5-10 years, I have a plane to catch to Shenzhen. And then I’m taking a boat to HK. My travel agent says it’s more convenient. We’ll see.

Well the flight was annoyingly longer than it was supposed to be. But they played “Mortdecai” on the flight, which is my favorite 2015 movie so far. It was cut short because we began our ‘landing’ about 45 minutes before we actually touched town. The airport in Shenzhen is really cool looking, you’ll have to look it up because my phone died before I could take pictures. My phone does this really annoying thing where it turns itself on while it’s in my bag or my pocket and just stays on, draining battery power, while I continue to not use it. I followed the long path of moving sidewalks to the domestic arrivals and found a desk that sells tickets for the ferry to Hong Kong. It was twice as much as my agent woman told me, but I expected that so I brought extra money. So now I’m sitting on the bus wondering what it’s like to ride a ferry from one city to another. I’ve never done that before.

I am thankful that it’s not a double flight. I did say before I was tired of flying and would like to eventually take a boat. I hope it lives up to my expectations. Speaking of which, when I imagined it on the plane I thought of myself sitting at a bar table by a window sipping some whiskey while the wind blew through the window and into my hair. That’s probably a very poor assessment because I’m sure it will be nothing like that. But I like to dream of luxury before I arrive at my shared room with some frumpy twin mattress and under washed sheets. I’m anxious to see how the boat and the crap hole hostel turns out. Maybe it won’t be a crap hole! Of course, I can always dream…

I’m on the ferry right now. Me and one other lady and like 5 staff but there are probably 200 something seats on this boat. And I may not be sitting at a table drinking whisky, but I am sitting in a comfy enough chair while I watch the Chinese coastline and drink some cabernet sauvignon. It’s pretty much like I have the boat to myself. It’s supposed to take an hour, but I’m ok with that. I’m just ready to get there and get settled.

Oh yeah, while I was waiting for the ferry, I booked an actual hotel room. Don’t worry, I’m totally prepared to pay the $12 for not showing up at the youth hostel. Small price to pay for my honor. The hotel I found is actually much closer to the airport and is pretty cheap for such a nice hotel. I got a great deal, too. I now feel a lot better about this trip. See how something so small can make such a big difference? And see how something so small can make such a big difference. You’re supposed to read the first one with excitement and the second one with kind of an annoyed tone. Go back and read it again like I said.

You know how they say your right brain is more creative and your left brain is more logical? I feel like the two sides of my brain have been fighting a lot. So I thought it would be a good tie breaker to put them up against each other in a friendly game of chess. It was interesting because my right brain, which controls my left side, always won, even when I switched so the white pieces were on the right and black was on the left. Plus it seemed a little racist to let white win all the time. Conclusively, my logical side won every time. We’re about to dock so I gotta go.

Well I found the hotel. It’s like a local Holiday Inn style hotel. Honk Kong is big. But its more tall than wide. All the buildings are so tall and skinny. I felt like I was in another world, which I kind of am. My tablet died shortly after I arrived, and HK outlets are different from China and I wasn’t prepared. But after snooping around after I watched some TV, I found a converter! Otherwise you would have never known what happened on this trip, or even that this trip existed! I wish I could stay a little longer and explore, but I have to be back at the airport mid-morning. I have to say, I don’t like flying around for a day and a half just to get a stamp on my passport. It feels like a waste of time. Even though I know it’s necessary.

My au pair agency that I work with has finally got up and running now! And they have a lot of families signed up that need au pairs. And since I am the first au pair in the city of Hangzhou, I am obligated to give the details and recruit! So if you or someone you know wants to spend 6-12 months in a beautiful, (I’m not just saying that. The people of China, that’s like millions and millions of people, say that Hangzhou is like heaven on Earth. Actually the saying is ‘There is heaven in the sky, and heaven in Hangzhou.’) vastly cultural and diverse city while also getting to know literally the cutest little boys and girls I’ve ever seen besides my cousins, come to Hangzhou! Every single little detail is planned out and paid for. All your food and travel expenses and even top of the line Chinese lessons. The only thing I’ve paid for since I got here is all the Starbucks I get. It’s a great time to be yourself and have the opportunity to influence the future aristocrats of China. And let’s face it, it’s just a fun job! So if you’re looking for something to do besides college for a year, or you finished college and you don’t know what you want to do with your life yet, come do this. I’d say it’s rewarding like teaching but less stressful because you only have one or two kids. I can’t even describe the amazing feeling I get when my boys copy something good that I do, from having a napkin in your lap while you eat to saying thank you to a waitress. It’s like getting to experience a tiny piece of parenting, and it’s also probably really good practice for being a parent. So if you’re interested, or you know someone who is, tell yourself or that person to email me for more details at berickson4124@outlook.com.

I think this is long enough, so until September…

A TON happened today but I just got to my gate in time to post this and then board, but its a crazy story! So I named this post "Iceberg" because there's so much more to the story than I actually told. Ask me about it next year.