so i bet you've all been biting your nails away, wondering whether i made it back to beijing in time for the halloween party. i got to the airport saturday morning, ready to wait all day if necessary. i asked the woman at the elong counter, and she told me again that all the flights were sold out. after explaining that i'd wait and see if people didn't show up, she took me to the air china booth to talk to them. unfortunately, the guy said that because of bad weather the day before, there weren't' even standby tickets. the elong woman took me to another airline's booth, which was also full. then she took me to a third booth, i don't know what it was, but they said they had tickets. hooray! although the flight was delayed about two hours, i did make it to beijing by 6 o'clock. the weird thing was, the ticket was for an air china flight. so i don't know what the hell that booth was, but i guess the air china tickets were not really entirely sold out.
i got into town, reached nick and mandie's, and by 930 was drunk and ready to go. we didn't get into the yen fetish party though, as it was too late to by tickets. but still, a fun random beijing evening, a nice return for my last week in the city.