Good Karma - A Love Story
Gabe + I when we first met
This week on Instagram I shared the story of how Gabe + I met, our whirlwind romance and our hilarious proposal story. With all the craziness we are dealing with these days, it’s been nice to escape for a while and reminisce . . .
I couldn’t share our love story, without sharing about the one time where good karma stepped in and SAVED. THE. DAY!
It was 7 months from when we first met each other that this story takes place - in the spring of 2007. Gabe was living in New York, I was in Beijing, and our long distance romance was heating up. I could barely hold back my excitement about seeing him for 4 days in Hong Kong - us each flying in to see one another. Hong Kong wasn’t too far for me so I could get the time off work, it’s full of fabulous night life excitement, amazing food + shopping, along with being warm + tropical climate! Perfect rendezvous point!
Tsinghua University. Image credit:. tsinghua.edu.cn
The morning of my flight I woke up early and went for a run through Tsinghua University which was near my apartment. It was really foggy that morning, but nothing could dampen my mood.
Image credit: chinadaily.com.cn/
As I was in a taxi heading to the airport, my driver casually asked me why I was headed to the airport when all the flights were cancelled due to the fog?
Wait, what?!
Surely my mandarin was just a little foggy . . .
But oh no, as I looked out the window, it was like I was seeing the weather for the first time. I had been so caught up in my excitement, I hadn’t even considered the effect the weather would have on my flight.
In Beijing when the fog rolls in combined with the air pollution and smog, it’s like a thick blanket covers the sky. Dense and unmoving.
I arrived at the airport and it was absolute mayhem.
image credit: Eugene Hoshiko
I joined the long, giant snake of frustrated + angry humans, all desperate to get the next possible flight out of there. As each person finished up, others would ask, where they were headed, and how long until they could get a flight.
It was not looking good. Was I going to miss seeing Gabe entirely?!
On top of that, there were a lot of angry men in that line that day . . . who didn’t speak Mandarin, and were angrily yelling at the women at the ticket counter about how they HAD to get out on a sooner flight. In a desperate attempt to keep the line moving, I went to the front to help translate. After a few successful translations (I speak Mandarin) I became the go-to foreigner - running up + down the line helping translate - selfishly trying to just get things hurried up so I could learn my fate.
The women at the ticket counter seemed to barely even care I was helping. She was grumpy and unsmiling (can’t blame her)! She never even acknowledged my existence, really.
I was simultaneously on the phone with my Chinese colleagues having them look into trains, and car rentals . . anything to get me travelling south ASAP . . . I would have rode a damn donkey if I thought it would have helped! But everything was booked. Booked. Booked.
Meanwhile the flights were booking up as well and it was going to be 3 days till I could get a flight out . . . I was desperate and devastated.
After about 2 hours, it was finally my turn. I was heart broken and defeated. I knew I might very likely arrive after Gabe had already turned around to fly home.
And with no expression on her face, no secret smile or knowing glances, the woman at the counter simply said: “You helped me today. I have helped you. I saved you a seat. You fly out tomorrow morning at 6AM.”
Gabe behind the camera on our Hong Kong weekend.
Oh. My. Gosh!!!
If that’s not good karma then I don’t know what is!
Long story short, I headed home and waited for Gabe to call me from Hong Kong wondering where I was. And although I would be a little late, I would be there. The next day I arrived and we had the most amazing 3 days together.
We said “I Love You” for the first time, and we started to make plans about how to get this Canadian girl to leave China and move to NYC.
XO, Andrea