Extended Vacation? (Monday/Tuesday: 75 & 76)

We had to wake up at 5:45 this morning to pack and catch a bus to the airport. We waited forever, and when the 8 bus finally came it was packed full so we couldn't get on. We didnt have time to wait another 30 minutes for the next one to come (or so we thought). A shuttle van drove by and ended up taking us for 20 yuan each, which isn't bad. It took twice as long because the streets were flooded and trashed with debris. 

Delayed. Delayed. Delayed. Originally our flight was supposed to leave at 7 , but we called the airline and they told us it was pushed back to 10 , so we sat in the airport forever. We thought we were lucky when our flight got delayed until 10:00AM. Little did we know that we wouldn't be leaving until another 12 hours later at 10:00PM. Just the day before there was around 200 flights delayed, so they definitely have some catching up to do. We didn't have any breakfast because we left so early and we didn't have time to pick up snacks either. We just had what was left from yesterday: a few crackers and some PB. They only had one Chinese restaurant that was pretty expensive and a KFC,  but they barely had any food, because of the storm, no trucks had come in yet to restock. The only thing they had left was chicken, and the lines were miles long. Some of our new Russian friends kept trying to offer us alcohol, but we just shook our head and declined. They were kinda crazy, but nice :)

Brooke and I asked a restaurant for some rice and they gave it to us for free, and we also snagged some soy sauce from downstairs.  I will take a free meal anytime :) 

We came back and ate it, and then looked at the departures board and freaked out a little. It said that our plane had already left. We missed our plane...How, I don't know, because none of us heard or saw anything. The board just said that our plane had departed. We went to go try and talk to a worker, and learned that there were at least 15 other people who missed it too. We went running around trying to get new tickets, and finally were sent back to where we got our original ones. According to some other passengers, the flight was canceled, which would explain why there were so many other people who didn't get on. Who knows what really happened, but at least we weren't the only ones. I don't feel as dumb for missing it now. 

  

It was a long day (you can tell who got all the sleeping done) :P

The floor was DISGUSTING! There was trash everywhere! We found some random cardboard to sit on like all the Chinese.

We finally took off around 10pm; the words BOARDING never looked so good! We landed in Guangzhou around 11 and got some "real" food, aka KFC... :P 
Luckily there was a long distance bus at 11:40 to Zhongshan. It was the last one to leave that night, or we probably would have had to stay the night at the airport or find some hostel which would have sucked. After a few good minutes of bartering, we eventually convinced a taxi driver to cram all 5 of us into a taxi. I'm glad we had Hayden there with us, because it would have only been us 4 girls with a bunch of creepy Chinese men. We finally made it home safe and sound at around 3 in the morning ready for some real sleep. 

Karina and kyle were nice enough to let us sleep and not teach for the day. We slept in till 11, went to lunch and then after hearing the praises of Vanguard supermarket decided we needed to go check it out. It was like a Chinese Walmart. They had almost anything you could want. We found some doughnuts and chocolates for one yuan. Can't beat that, although I did see a cockroach running across the glass bakery case...I try to just ignore everything like that though, because I've probably eaten worse here already.

Glad to be back in our city, and thankful we were safe from the storm in Sanya. We were lucky not to be hit harder like the Phillippines were. They lost many lives and had devastating results. Sending prayers to the people and families who had loved ones lost!