from Beijing to Shanghai

The trip from Beijing to Shanghai was not exactly what I would call pleasurable. First, it started at the break of dawn. My brain was still half-asleep while we hurried to the buses that would take us down to the airport. Then, halfway through the one or so hour trip to the airport, my bladder decided that it had to go. And it had to go so badly I was almost in tears. And so I concentrated on holding it back until I couldn't smile, talk or even look at anyone.

After relieving myself, I realized that for the first time since I took the plane from Manila and arrived in China, I was once again in an airport. It must be noted that I like airports. Airports, for me, can only mean two things: the beginning of a new adventure or going back home, both good things. That day, while listening to a recently downloaded song as it sang "sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came..." I suddenly felt so sad that I almost bought a ticket home.

We boarded the plane and waited. And waited. And waited. I'm not sure how long our flight was delayed but it seemed like a really long time. Fortunately, there were newspapers in English to keep me occupied. And the mp3 player, of course.

When we finally got to Shanghai, there was more waiting as the athletes' baggage took more than an hour to arrive. It turned out that their guns were on another aircraft, not the one we took. So there I was with at most four hours of sleep the night before and thinking of the irony in the song: there was only one person in Shanghai who knows my name and I hadn't seen her for 13 years. An athlete asked if there was anything wrong when she saw me red-eyed, trying to hold back tears of homesickness. I said my eyes were itchy and I made scratching gestures to my eyes.

The assistant team manager decided that I could just wait in the bus since I didn't have any checked in baggage. We went out of the airconditioned airport and the heat slapped me so hard I could have sworn that it was the peak of summer in Manila. Then I continued singing, "Be glad there's one place in the world where everybody knows your name..." And I guess that would be it for now, I'd be glad with the knowledge that there IS a home that I can always go back to anytime and that they'd always be glad I came.

(Click on the individual pictures for more kwentos.)