The Tale of Tessa's Luggage Hatred

I shall begin with a preface. I have been taught to be a light packer from my infancy. When I went on a 9 day trip back east with Preston I took a 12 pound backpack and that was all. I hate taking big suitcases with me when I travel and do not ever do it unless it is entirely necessary.

 For this 5 month adventure to China, packing a great deal of luggage was necessary. First of all, I had to bring enough clothes and hygene supplies for myself to last the whole time I was here. I also had to bring a suitcase full of supplies for the school that I am teaching at. I was able to pack everything I needed in two 50 pound suitcases, a 35 pound carry on suit case and a back pack. I hated having all that luggage even when I was just going down the stairs from my room in Phoenix but that was only just the beginning. We checked in my 49 and 51 pound bags at the airport and thankfully I didnt have to pick them up until I arrived in Hong Kong. I lugged my backpack and heavy carry on around the Phoenix, San Fransisco, Korea, and Hong Kong. There were 19 other girls that were flying with me to Hong Kong that all had the same amount of luggage as I did. Somehow, we all managed to get our luggage onto a huge bus and into our hotel. All of my luggage was really too much for me to handle by myself. There was about 160 pounds of it all together.

On the day of our departure from Hong Kong, we checked in all of our luggage into security. At this point, we broke up into our group so there were seven of us at this point. The night before we left, Wendy and I got a phone call at 11:30 at night that went something like this...

"HELLO, Tee-sa Smitt? this is John from Zhongshan (zhong-shawn) you head teacher?"

"No I am not the head teacher." 

"Wendy Smitt head teacha?" 

"No Wendy isnt the head teacher" (he later explained to us that he thought we were sisters and so he figured that one of us must be the head teacher. I dont know why.)

"Oh Teesa tomorrow I send man to pick you and group up at hotel. He speak no english. You just follow him. You follow him he take you right place."

"Okay, we will follow him." 

"Good Teesa you do that. I see you tomorrow."

 We toured Hong Kong all day and then waited around for the mysterious man we couldn't talk to that was to take us to our new home. At the appointed time, a Chinese man came up to Wendy and said "ILP Head Teacher?" She said "no" because she is not the head teacher and then said "yes" really quickly because she is with ILP so the man handed her a piece of paper. The piece of paper said, "Hello, my name is Candice." She was very confused by this because the man in front of us was obviously not named Candice. She kept reading and we came to find out that his name was Banker and we were told, again, to follow him. A bus comes to pick us up. The bus is a small bus that would normally fit 9 people very comfortably but we were not 9 people. We were 9 people with 21 very heavy pieces of luggage. Banker, like a pure ninja, managed to fit all our luggage between the seats on the bus. When we were pulling out of the hotel, the bus hit a huge pillar and dented it. The bus driver didnt seem to mind though because he pulled away. We had no idea where we were going. We really hoped that we wouldnt have to get all our luggage off the bus again but that wish was not to come true. The bus dropped us off at the ferry to go to Zhongshan. We unloaded all our luggage and carried to through the ferry station. I want you to picture seven American girls blindly following a Chinese man that did not speak English with 21 pieces of luggage. It was a little bit like a momma duck with all her little ducks following her. At this point I was laughing hysterically because the alternative was to cry. Thankfully, we were able to check 7 bags onto the ferry, but only 7. We had to hall the rest of the bags onto the ferry with us that was completely packed with people. We were completely exhausted at this point and somehow made it through the one and a half hour trip to Zhongshan. Once we arrived, we lugged all our luggage off the ferry and after all of this, had to have them checked through customs because of our arrival in mainland China. For one final time, we loaded all our luggage into a van. They brought one van for us to ride in and another van for our luggage. We all felt terrible for Banker at this point because he had 7 white girls with hundreds of pounds of luggage that he was in charge of. To this day he still glares at us whenever we smile at him. I do not blame him. We finally got to our apartment and got our luggage to its final home.  It felt like home instantly because of how happy i was to see it. After this experience, I made a vow with myself. I am never going to go on a trip again with any more luggage than just a backpack.