Hangzhou Safe and Sound (but whew!)

(Lauren)

Today was an early day for the five of us.  Because our flight to Hangzhou was scheduled to leave at 8:25 a.m., Richard had decided to play it safe, and asked us to be checked out and ready to go by 6:15.  As we ate a quick breakfast in the car, we fretted somewhat about meeting our host families.  Had we brought enough gifts?  Were we wearing nice enough clothes?  Cassie, Alaina, and I had gone through all of this the previous evening, but felt the need to hear each other's opinions a second time.  Alex found this discussion highly amusing.

We arrived at the Xi'an airport without incident, and checked our bags (sadly overweight by this point).  Once our luggage had been checked, we reluctantly said goodbye to Richard, and headed of through security.  Everything continued to go smoothly for us, and we soon found ourselves aboard the plane.  That was where things started to go somewhat less smoothly.

Shortly after we took off, the plane hit some mild turbulence.  We weren't particularly worried as we received the standard instructions to stay seated and buckled up for safety.  It wasn't until later, when the turbulence became markedly less mild, that we began to wish the plane would land soon.  Several times, the turbulence got so bad that we actually thought the plane had touched the ground, only to be proven wrong!  As our watches struck 10:20, we were relieved, thinking that we would be landing shortly.  That was when the announcement was made.

Since the loudspeaker announcement was first made in Chinese, we had no idea what was going on - but the rather distressed exclamations from our fellow passengers let us know that it was something serious.  We learned soon enough that the plane was actually unable to land due to the severe thunderstorms Hangzhou was experiencing.  Instead, we were being redirected to an airport halfway between Hangzhou and Shanghai.

While we found this redirection inconvenient, we were still not particularly worried.  We assumed it would be easy enough to land, reclaim our luggage, and catch the next bus back to Hangzhou.  We soon found out how wrong we were.  Once we landed in the airport, the flight attendants told us we would not be allowed to leave the plane, which was waiting to hear if the weather in Hangzhou had turned.  We sat on the plane another half an hour waiting for the weather before we were allowed off.  At this point, the airline told us that it was impossible to fly into Hangzhou period.  They suggested we instead fly to Nanjing (tickets we would have to pay for ourselves) and then take a bus to Hangzhou from there.  By this point, we were pretty livid.

The airline soon came back with another solution.  There were buses that would go from our current airport to a bigger bus depot, at which point we could take the bigger bus back to Hangzhou (an hour and a half ride).  Alternatively, we could stay in the airport and wait for the weather to turn, and then fly back (20 minutes).  We decided to wait until we could get ahold of Naichuan, Helen, or Richard to ask their advice.  Unfortunately, neither of our cell phones worked, and nor did a nearby pay phone.

Within an hour of our landing at the airport, the airline came back to tell us that the weather had changed, and that we could fly back to Hangzhou.  Elated, we rushed to get on the plane.  We then learned that the weather had not actually changed at all...so we had to continue waiting for the plane to take off.  2 hours later, we were still sitting on the runway.

Tired and grumpy, we thought longingly of our layover at the Chengdu airport.  At Chengdu, the airline officials gave each of us 100 yuan as compensation for the 6 hours we waited in the airport.  Since the situation on the plane was far less comfortable than in Chengdu, several of us felt that we deserved 200 yuan!  Unfortunately, this was a different airline, and they seemed to feel that seaweed-covered peanuts would satisfy people.  Alaina and Cassie tried the peanuts and said that they certainly were satisfactory - but not as much as money would have been!

Once the plane finally took off, we were told that the ride back to Hangzhou would take half an hour.  An hour later, we were finally landing in the Hangzhou airport.  It was four o'clock in the afternoon.

We met up with the Hangzhou delegation, who had had an equally unenjoyable day waiting in the airport for us to show up.  I was thrilled to be introduced to my host sister, Ning.  She is a sophomore, and is a wonderfully sweet, friendly person.  Ning and I struck up a fast friendship on our bus ride back to the school, where we met up with her parents.  Ning's parents didn't speak much English, but we had fun communicating in a mix of English and Chinese (with the help of Ning, whose English was excellent).  After dinner, we returned to their appartment, where I met Ning's grandparents.  She and I had a lot of fun playing piano together, even though I can't actually play piano.  We sounded pretty good, all things being equal!  After we finished playing, Ning's dad sent her to go do her homework (she had extra, since she'd missed school today).

I have been completely thrilled with the hospitality that Ning and her family have shown me already.  I feel certain that I will have a great time with her family - and suspect that Alaina, Cassie, and Alex feel similarly!  Tomorrow, we tour the West Lake during our first full day at Hangzhou.  The real adventure has begun!