Our Trip to the People's Republic of China

Day 10
The Flight Home

The plane trip home was very similar to the flight to China, with two notable exceptions:

• I was seated next to my mother all the way to L.A. – I could crawl over my mother instead of a total stranger.

• I could sleep – in fact, in the final hour to San Diego, I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

Rather than wait 2 hours for our connecting flight, Pat and I traded our tickets for standby on a commuter flight. We couldn’t get on the first two flights, which were about 20 minutes apart, but finally heard our names called. The turbojet was so small that I had both a window and an aisle seat in one. Pat was seated farther down the aisle.

On this part of the journey, I experienced a lost-time phenomenon, much like a strobe light punctuating darkness with flashes. The stewardess would be at the head of the cabin. I’d close my eyes, and she was leaning over me, asking what I’d like to drink. She’d be gone. Flash. She was next to me serving. Every time I closed my eyes, she’d reappear in a different spot.

We arrived in San Diego sooner than expected, but our luggage did not. We had to wait for our original flight in order to claim our bags. At least we were on home ground.

When my husband arrived to pick us up, he found us giggling madly with a man we’d just met. Somehow, our international travel had overcome our reticence in striking up conversations. The man was waiting for his bags to arrive from Korea. He handed us some Korean wan.

"What’s that for?" I asked.

"For talking to me," he laughed.

I pulled out some leftover yuan.

"What’s that for?" he asked.

"Change," I said (tongue in cheek).

Epilogue

I'll end my tale with two words of Chinese that I actually used during the trip--other than Boo Yeow (for scram).

Xi Xi (Chichi)

The sound is suspiciously like the name of the Dragon Lady. While here in the U.S., we would use the term chichi to describe a ritzy but stuckup establishment, in China, Xi Xi means thank you.

Yee How, with a thumbs-up hand gesture

I remember this word by visualizing three very different men. First, a cowboy, who waves his hat and yells, "Yee Haw." Second, an Indian who puts his palm forward and says, "How." And last, a surfer dude, who just smiles and gives a thumbs-up sign.

Yee How means hello.

To everyone then, I say "Xi Xi and Yee How." Because I never learned the Chinese word for goodbye.