Pee Pee on the Fei Ji (airplane)

On my flight from Newark to Beijing, was under the assumption that I had an aisle seat on the exit row. Unfortunately, that seat was not mine but rather a large Chinese man’s who made sure to recline back the entire time; I was right behind him. Next to me were a four year old Chinese boy and his mother.

Immediately prior to take off, the little boy told his mother in Chinese that he needed to go to the bathroom. Unable to do so, she told him to wait. He then screamed the same phrase in English; the kid wasn’t messing around. For the next minute and a half I pretended to read about the Georgian conflict in the Wall Street Journal while the mother proceeded to pull out a zip-lock bag, put it around her son’s yinjing, and told him to pee.

Throughout the 13 hour flight, the two got up to play tag in the aisle or actually pee in a toilet 9 times.

Scattered amongst the Chinese in economy were about 20 or so college students asking each other if they were studying abroad at IES Beijing (International Education of Students). I got to meet most of my future classmates there while I waited for the bathroom to open up. There is a total 95 students here from the states, and though I haven’t met them all, we all share a common bond of not studying jack this summer.

I had a moment of personal triumph on the plane; I was able to go pee. Now, not many people know this but I am extremely pee shy. If I know someone can hear me pee, nothing will flow. In fact, I have to use the stalls in any public restroom because it’s virtually impossible for me to pee with someone next to me. My own personal hell would be having to pee in front of a crowd of people (followed closely by ripping saran-wrap for eternity). Anyways, I pee’d twice on flight CO89 and it felt epic.

Our flight touched down in a surprisingly clean-air (being relative here…) Beijing and it was at baggage claim that I realized I brought about half as much stuff as everyone else. I checked only one large bag; everyone checked two large bags and brought at least two more for carry-on. The only real issue with this that I can think of is that I am going to need a pack for our two week excursion trip planned in late September. But more on that later.

A half-hour bus ride drove us through Beijing where the Olympic flair could be seen on every street. You can’t see less than 30 Olympic banners, flags, signs, or streamers on any street no matter which way you turn. I am already trying to figure out how to steal one or two of these banners which hang from virtually every street lamp in Beijing. After about 20 minutes, the IES Director who met us at the airport told us to get out our cameras for a tourist moment we wouldn’t want to miss; the Bird’s Nest is probably one of the sweetest stadiums I have ever seen – and I can’t wait to actually see it up close.