Q: What has 2 wings, 4 engines and 400+ happy people?

A: Not my 747!

Subtitle Choices:

Leaving China was so much fun, I thought that I would try it again!

OR

Oh, so that is what jet fuel looks like!

OR

I heart customs and immigration

The choice is up to you, my friends :)

Yup, I am back in Beijing, I guess just couldn't stay away!

So, I got to the airport okay, said goodbye to my students, got flooded with sweet goodbye text messages, got all checked in, paid my overweight bag charge (eek), went through the absolute joy that is know as immigration and finished spending my remaining kuai at the airport. Everything was going really smoothly! Like butter.

We all boarded and left basically on time. I was feeling really lucky as my row was one of only two which didn't not have the middle seat booked. So my row mate and I were able to spread out a little more and celebrated our "we have a little more airplane seat freedom" with a Trident gum toast. We took off and were on our way cruising through the sky at dusk. It was beautiful! We went over some mountains that looked all purple and misty, hard to describe just how enchanting it looked.

We were about 2 hours out of Beijing and I was just finishing up saying my mental goodbyes to the country that had been my home for the past two years and to the people who I have gotten to know and love when I was interrupted by the overly spastic dinging of the seat belt bell to get everyone back into their seats.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING!!!

-Crackle-

"Hello this is the captain. I am very disappointed to inform all of you that one of our engines has stopped working. I assure you that our other three engines are perfectly functional and we could definitely make the flight back to Chicago safely, but the responsible thing to do is to head back to Beijing and try it again. I apologize for all of this inconvenience and I am very disappointed that we will not be able to make the trip, but this is the most responsible thing to do. Please stick close to your seat and we will keep you updated as best and as often as we can. Thank you for your understanding and patience."

What?!? Engine out? Going back to Beijing?

Just them we get another announcement, that our plane will be diverted to a fuel dumping zone before we are able to land. Oh my god! I have never seen anything like it. When we were in the dumping zone over the mountains, there was some sort of spout-like thing on each wing that was opened and jet fuel just came streaming out. my seat was just behind the wing, so I got a really good view of all the exciting action. Well, exciting for about the first ten minutes of the 2+ hour dump time. We circled and circled the dumping area, getting rid of the fuel for the 12 hour flight. Then we head back to Beijing and circle around some more so they could clear a time for us to land. But we were served our meals, so I got to nosh on my specially prepared vegetarian meal while cruising over the mountains at sunset, dumping jet fuel. Awesome.

We land and then we wait.

and wait.

and wait.

and wait.

and wait, but this time without any air circulation.

As we wait, a team of mechanics rush out to the broken engine and immediately start to pull it apart. It just happen to be the engine right in front of me. Stinkin' defective engine.

Eventually, some people come around to get our information and give us vouchers for transportation, hotel and food. Then we get to exit the plane, but no slide :( and on to the super sexy transport buses back to the airport. Then, more waiting.

We officially have to reenter the country, so we get to go through immigration again, but this time in reverse. They had one desk open for us in the immigration area and got to get a special little light blue "Cancelled" stamp on the still fresh departure stamp.

Then, once again more waiting.

Now is the time we get on the buses to the hotel. All in all they did a great job with all of the last minute arrangements they had to make. I finally got all checked in my new room at 11 PM. I texted some kids I had promised to write to as soon as I got home and then was flooded once again with "what happened" messages. One of the good things to come out from the delay was that I was able to find the tastiest fried noodles I had ever eaten!

So, after some phone calls and such I went to bed and prepared for the same adventure the next day.