After an hour or two, I received a text from Brit around telling me they had gotten dressed and would knock on my door in a few minutes. I went with them to the first desk for their check out and putting their bags away. Apparently most hostels have a room for you to put your stuff. So even if you come early or check out you can put you stuff in a locked room.
We left the hostel together; the ladies were going to get a massage I was going to walk with them until I noticed that it was about to be 12. I am SO happy that I left early. The walk didn't even a lot of turns. You leave the Sanlitun hostel and make a right on the main road. Then when you hit a street (I forgot which one, but it was one the map) and you make a left and walk down it until you hit the airport shuttle. The problem is that it's a loooooonnnnggg walk. I stopped a few times to ask people if I was going the right way.
*Side note- I recommend coming prepared with some survival Mandarin, even in Beijing. I figured I would have to use it, but I tried to speak English slowly as a test and the person looked at me crazy. I only used Mandarin when I was there.*
I reached the station, bought my ticket, and head down the escalator; the shuttle comes every ten minutes and costs 25 kuai. (Also I noticed that people in Dongying say kuai, while folks in Beijing say yuan). It took about thirty minutes for me to arrive at Terminal 3 (the International terminal). I arrived around a little before 1 pm and got in position. The airport wasn't crowded which was nice because I got to stand right against the railing instead of behind people.
Boba and I already had a plan in case we couldn't find each other. I remembered there was a green bank directly to your left when you leave the airport. I told him what I would have on and even made a sign that read his first name, his last name, and then it said aka Boba haha I showed him the sign before, so that he would know what it looked like. I decided to stand in front of the bank as well just to be on the same side. As I was waiting a few annoying people would come and stand near me and stare at me. I just ignored them and listened to my Ipod. I refused to let anyone even slightly frustrate or annoy me.
One lady standing beside is holding up a sign that has the same flight number on it as Boba's. I figured I would keep an eye on her in case her clients arrived before he did; I would know that he would be out shortly after. I waited and waited and the anticipation kept building. I finally saw the lady pick up her passengers, so I knew he would be coming out soon. Every time a person would come out I would be break my neck to see if it was him (I am super short, and I was a good distance away). I kept standing on my tippy toes to see him. And then I finally saw him!!! I was SO SO SO excited, and he looked super handsome as always. I held up my sign super high (it probably wasn’t that high lol My short butt). I was to his right, but he kept looking to his left. He later told me he was looking for his extraction point!!! He was right in front of me. I was like, “Boba! Boba!” Then he looked at me and I saw his whole face light up. It made my heart smile! We ran to each other, and he gave me a huge hug.
We made our way down to the taxi queue. We got a little lost, but a nice guy took us to where it was. We only needed to go down one more escalator instead of heading outside. I updated him on my last few days before he arrived and my crazy night. He had a good laugh about the club situation. He told me that’s why he never wanted to take me out dancing. I gave up going out dancing after my first year of college. I didn’t go often, maybe once or twice a semester, but always enjoyed having mini parties with my friends more. We arrived back at the hostel and saw the cutest dog ever! The hostel owned him, and he was the cutest thing ever. Joe played with him a little bit. Here’s a picture of him:
He had a little ball that he would fetch for you. Simply adorable! In my next post, I'll talk about our trip to the Summer Palace!
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