You have been deported from Beijing

As I get off the airplane in Beijing, the familiarity of the airport returns to me. I approach the passport control where my Chinese Visa must be approved. I am given the hand signal to approach the woman. As a total shock to me, she says " You know your Visa expired a month ago?". I am then accompanied by a police officer who will be with me throughout my entire experience until deportation and brought into a room. The El-Al Beijing representative tells me that there is a slim to none chance of me being let into the country unless my father is a CEO of a company like Intel. I start making calls to my father to try to negotiate something but nothing seems to work. My father believes that everything is negotiable in China, but this time there was no chance. The very kind El Al Chinese representative first told me that I might have to hop on a flight black to Tel Aviv that night but then helps me brainstorm for solutions. We reach a conclusion that flying to Hong Kong and receiving a Visa there will be the best solution. I wait in the airport for 5 hours until my flight to HK departs. Throughout this entire experience, what is keeping me calm is my new Mark Rich book that I started to enjoy so much on the flight to Beijing. The police offer than brings me over to my gate and to my surprise I was forced to board before even before business class. I wasnt sure if this was a priviledge or a punishment. I wasn't sure if I felt like a criminal or not. I wasnt sure with whom I would spend the holiday with.

Upon arriving to HK airport at 10 PM, I convert some RMB to HK Dollars. My first task was to figure out my visa situation as fast as possible in order to get myself back to Beijing. The Chabad Rabbi in Beijing has a contact in HK who helps me the next morning to get the Visa within one day. My plan was to catch a Flight back to Beijing on Saturday night or Sunday morning. It is 12 ocklock now and my plan is to sleep in the airport for the night so that I can figure out my Visa first thing in the morning. I take my stuff and head for the wifi area with my hazelnut starbucks coffee that I picked up on the way. As I am skyping with pops in Beijing, I begin to relax knowing that my plans for the morning have settled and begin to truly enjoy the airport. Being in an International airport for more than 24 hours is really cool. You get to meet people from all around the world and to improve your geography. I felt like I was on The Terminal.

I approach an attractive girl next to me who I thought might have a blackberry charger. After a minute of conversing with her, I realize that her and her friend are two Israeli girls who missed their connection from HK back to Israel. The girls were working with agalot in Australia and were selling a small sponge that basically makes your nails look really shiny. They start shining my nails and we exchange stories of why we are in an airport together and not at home. The three of us fall asleep on the floor of the HK airport and hope for a better next day. The next morning I send my passport off with a local Chinese man in order to get the Visa I needed by the end of the day. I asked the girls if they wanted to split a room at the airport hotel as I needed a place to stay for Shabbat. They said they were interested. I then said goodbye, booked into the hotel and headed off for a day to HK Island.

I return from my day and the nice guy that I am, I went back to our camp out to say hi to the girls. They ended up being there after figuring out how to get back home to Israel and asked me if they can put their luggage in my room. They put their big bags in my room and begin to excite themselves over how nice the room was(compared to the HK airport floor, the room seemed to them like a palace). They somehow felt too comfortable in my room and something just didn't feel right.

A small remark about Israelis:

Israelis are extremely warm people and when comfortable with someone, know how to give so much. Unfortunately in return, they also expect to be given a lot and know how to take quite a bit. A similar story happened to Sam, Tomer and I in Central America where Israelis just seemed to take too much from us. We met a Karaite Jew and his cracked friend who wanted to take showers in our room and schnore off of us hard.

The girls then went to the pool and I went to work out. They just seemed to comfortable in a hotel room that wasn't even theirs. The annoying thing is that I asked them if they wanted to share a room in the morning and it wasn't cool for them to just shnore off of me. My dad told me that he got the room for me for Shabbat and that I needed to kick em out. If my dad didn't tell me that, I would have probably let them stay being the friar I am. The room had sufficient space and I felt so bad making them sleep in the Airport but it wasn't right on their part.

I spent a quite Shabbat by myself and read myself through it. I ended up getting to Beijing and enjoyed an amazing two weeks in Beijing with my family.

Tips

1. Park far away

Always park far away from where you need to go. It's better to walk an extra five minutes to know that your car hasn't been backed into

2. Israelis & Elevators

Never let an Israeli walk into the elevator before you exit it. People out here love walking in before you even have the chance to get out. We have to start teaching manners person by person

3. Consolidate your sports

Instead of spending your time on being average at 5 sports, spend your time getting better at fewer sports that you actually think you can get better at. No one wants to be the average player in the game. Practice one sport and be the best one at it.

4. Half of dating a girl is dating her family

50% of your research should consist of looking at the family. People underestimate how important it is getting along well with your girlfriend/wife's family.