8.4. connie and chris's excellent adventure

(There was only that one title for this entry, honest.)

Originally written the week of July 23rd.

When I bid goodbye to everyone at Shoreland on June 13th, it was a very messy affair. Packing took the longest time, and I had to have everything else sent off to Sarah's apartment, and then to see various people and say goodbye. Chris was making pot brownies (oh, that Chris), but came up and helped me get a public key, and along with Katie, Sarah and Lauren, made sure I got all my luggage downstairs in one piece, and into the taxi. I could never have made it to the airport on time without them. What bricks! Every last one of them! I love all of them, honestly. (And am chagrined that Katie hasn't uploaded those photos yet!) I left them waving in front of the Shoreland, and hadn't the faintest expectation to see any of them before January.

Chris was one of the ones I hadn't heard from at all this summer, but I assumed he was busy being crazy with the summer weather, and enjoying his time at home. And then out of the blue, last week, I got an e-mail, whose subject line was "Lunch?"

Turns out Chris's father is a lawyer for Northwest Airlines (for now, I hear they're merging with Delta), and thus can fly whenever he pleases. Business class, no less. (Ridiculously awesome, seriously.) Last year, they went to Japan, and this year, China was on the menu. I was excited to be able to talk to him, though, and made plans for lunch at Xidan.

It was once again a blessing that we managed to find each other, because there were several "Beijing 2008" signs, and I arrived nearly half an hour late because my parents called. Also, my cellphone ran out of battery, which proved the beginning of a long adventure. We actually bumped into each other within five minutes of me getting there, which was nice. And then we immediately embarked on a trip to find lunch. First, we had egg crepe sandwiches - I have no better way to translate 煎饼. It's like a crepe with egg on it, and then crispy fried dough wrapped with scallions and bean paste. It's kind of delicious, and one of my main goals in coming back to China this summer was to eat it. Then we also got tea drinks, and walked around one of the markets, pointing out Engrish on the shirts. Which was awesome. Then we did a roundabout trip and found a place that had honeyed chicken wing kebabs, which were delicious. I approve heartily. We each had three, and gossiped about how bad apparently pot brownies can be. And then we went to another market, had cold noodles, and I took several pictures of Chris enjoying typical Beijing fare. Finally, we brought strawberry egg tarts at KFC (which were marvelously hot and flaky and everything a pastry should be), and watched some "High School Musical" at the bottom of the Xidan Bookstore.

The adventure started after we finished our meal of cold noodles, and figured out that my cellphone had officially died, without any hope of revival. But Chris had to call his father and meet him at Beihai Park. Thus the chase begins... When we found a mall, we went inside, and actually discovered a machine which recharged cellphones - it had a few dozen different charge plugs sticking out of it, and we were about to be delighted out of our wits when we were told it out of order. Fabulous. The guy at the mall heard us out and pointed us towards somewhere he promised had a public telephone. All lies. Then we found a cellphone place where they persuaded us to buy a $30 phone card which would work with any public telephone, and could call internationally, they promised. They directed us to a hotel around the corner, whose lobby had two public telephones. This was true, but the telephones and the card were retarded. So concurred the lobby waiters who tried to help us make sense out of the machine, which refused to dial more than 3 digits of Chris's dad's Blackberry number. Hmm. Next, they pointed us to a place inside the hotel, where a nice woman tried to get their normal phone to call Chris's dad, but it would simply not cooperate. She said we could try using the computer if it was necessary, and after two minutes (which cost 4 RMB, ridiculous), Chris and I concluded that it was horribly futile.

By this time, we were just... man, I laugh so hard every time I remember how many twists and turns we went through. Finally, I went back to the public telephones and called my mom's friend Xiao Ying, to conduct some business I would have anyway - which was that I'd taken the job in August that my dad suggested, and she didn't need to call and negotiate the one that my mom suggested. And after we had concluded that business, I mentioned that my friend Chris and I were horribly at odds for a way to call his dad as my cellphone had died. As Xiao Ying had spent a few years in America, she offered to call his dad's number and tell him to call his son at the number of the public telephone we were at. After I hung up with her, she called once to make sure she could call into the public telephone. Then we spent five agonizing minutes waiting for his dad (hopefully) to call, laughing and shaking our heads because it was all positively ridiculous. And then it finally rang.

"Hello? Hi, Dad!" The relief was absolutely palpable in Chris's voice, and we grinned at each other.

His dad agreed to meet us at the Xidan subway stop, in a little while, and Chris and I celebrated being able to call an American cellphone in Beijing after an hour of running around like two chickens with their heads cut off by getting aforementioned strawberry egg tarts at KFC. They tasted very good.

That was Chris's and my excellent adventure in Beijing. It was funny, but insanely stressful at the time being, of course. =) Ever after, I have laughed insanely at the thought of Chris's father answering a call from a strange woman who told him in accented English to call his son at a random number. It almost sounds like a scam, really. But somehow, it all worked out, his dad didn't think (or at least he didn't say out loud) that I was a dumbass because my phone wouldn't charge, and father and son were reunited once more. It's a good story. One could almost write a musical about it.