ARRIVING IN CHINA
The third part of my flight was from Tokyo to Shanghai. After I had boarded the plane and got somewhat comfortable, I started thinking about my arrival in Shanghai. I suddenly realized that if the people from my University failed to meet me as they said they would, I did not know what I would do. I had no back-up plan and I had over two hundred ten pounds of luggage, no Chinese money, did not know how to say “hello” or “help” in the language and I was going to be arriving around 9:30 PM. I already was exhausted and my adrenaline seemed to be running out. I could be headed for disaster.
In the past, when I had felt such moments of panic I knew that the best thing is to just take one step at a time. As long as I had something constructive to do and I could keep moving forward, I would be OK. I knew that I really should save the panic for when I ran out of those two things. The step right now was to sit on the plane until it landed and then I would follow other people as I had in Tokyo. I would go where they went and do what they did. I COULD DO THAT, so there was no need for panic, YET. I was not able to relax because I started thinking of possible scenarios of what I could do if stranded in Shanghai. None of my thoughts were very good.
Then I remembered seeing a man getting on the plane who looked like an American. I looked around for him, then gathered my nerve, went to where he was sitting and explained to him my potential problem. He seemed very experienced and knowledgeable. He simply stated that without question my Chinese University would be there as promised. He said that he had no doubt and he said this with such certainty that I couldn’t say much more except that if they weren’t, I would look for him for help and he smiled. I did feel better now knowing that I had back-up, if needed.
When the plane landed, I slowly gathered my belongings and waited for others to disembark so I’d have a bigger group to follow. We walked and walked and walked. I always have a sense of humor so I was trying to figure out reasons for such a long walk. Maybe they wanted to give you plenty of time to enter China in case you wanted to change your mind and run back to the plane. Or maybe they only allowed the healthiest people to enter China and you had to prove your health and fitness with what seemed like a ten-mile hike.
But we soon divided up into lines to give someone the health questionnaire we had filled out on the plane. If our answers were satisfactory, I guess, assuming they could read English, we went on to the next line with our passports in hand. I tried to look friendly and sweet, but vulnerable enough that I might pass out if they even asked me a question. I just kept quiet and I kept moving. Some people were having difficulties, but my official did not even speak to me.
Soon I followed others to the next step, which was to get our luggage. People got a bit crazy at this point as if the first ones to find their suitcases would get a million-dollar prize. I was pushed, bumped and smashed into. I certainly wasn’t going to get a prize because I could not find my suitcases any where. I kept going back and forth between the two monstrous luggage carousels for our flight, but nothing familiar came into sight. More and more people were gone from the area, but I still could not see my luggage. My heart was starting to sink as I stood there wondering what I should do. Then off in the distance moved to the middle of the empty first class carousel was a pile of the three suitcases that were mine. My thought was that since they weighed so much it was assumed they must be first class or maybe first class suitcases could weigh more and the man at the ticket counter had covered for me. Possibly the $130 allowed my luggage to fly first class, but that didn’t include me. I was just so relieved, but my next problem was to get the three suitcases from the middle of the carousel. All of a sudden a good-sized man appeared and lifted each suitcase onto my flatbed cart. I don’t know where he came from. I didn’t even have time to ask him for help because he already knew what I needed. As he was moving them, I said a quick “thank you.” At this moment I hardly took time to think about it because I had possibly my most difficult problem ahead of me and I was recharged.
I looked around at which direction people were taking now and headed that same way. Customs was next. What a nightmare, having to show a year’s worth of possessions. I wasn’t sure where I would begin. But the area was crowded and people were backed up and standing all over. We were in a huge building divided by a rope. I looked to the other side of the rope and there was a crowd of people waiting for passengers. There were many people holding signs, which I quickly and frantically scanned. Then I saw the most beautiful sign saying, “Joan Mieritz” on the top line with “Hohai University” neatly printed beneath it. Tears came to my eyes and I yelled to the small group of people and pointed to myself, “That’s me, that’s me!” Tears flooded down my face in such great relief. Yang, the adult of the group, motioned for me to keep going.
Yang later told me that she too was relieved when she saw me. She had worked so hard to get me to Hohai University and then she worried about what I would be like. Would things work out or would I present more problems than I was worth? She would be the one to receive the credit or blame and that was a serious position to be in at a Chinese University. But she said that with my expression and tears, she knew that everything would be OK.
The two young men who were with Yang quickly ran around the rope, grabbed my cart and pushed it around the crowd past the customs officials. No one stopped them and as they disappeared, I went around the rope and I gave Yang a big hug like she was a long-lost friend. But, to me it was more like collapsing in her arms. As the young men and my luggage disappeared, Yang could read my expression and said that I shouldn’t worry because they were going to get the car from the University. She very proudly said that the University had provided a car and driver to pick up the American teacher. She told me that I was the first American teacher to live at Hohai. I was too tired to care about much of anything. I just followed along. I was so relieved to have successfully made it to this point and to have people there for me. It seemed like nothing else could be a problem or concern.