Seriously??

Big soccer tournament in Tianjin for Cameron and all the other 3rd-5th graders on the teams.  My driver picked me up at 12:30 and we went to the school.  Cameron gave me his school bag and I gave him his bag of soccer stuff and DS so he would be entertained on the bus for the hour drive.  Ileana jumped in my van and we were off.  There was a big tour bus type bus for the boys, a mini bus for the girls, and my van headed to Tianjin.  We pulled out of the parking lot and got to the first light when we lost the first big bus.  That bus went straight and the mini bus and my van turned left.  My driver made the sound of "HUH" and looked confused.  He continued to follow the mini bus.  As long as we follow something it is fine because none of us knew where we were going.

Once on the interstate Ileana and I were talking away as usual.  We suddenly realized we were driving rather slow.  Mr. Xue kept looking in his rear view mirror and we realized the mini bus was no where to be seen.  Seriously??  How does one lose 2 buses within 15 minutes?  We continue to drive slow for what seemed like forever.  We thought we were ok still because we hadn't reached the toll booth yet.  I made a call to our friend Heather because her kids go to school in Tianjin to see where the school was.  She sent me a business card with a map.  Phew.  I showed it to him and he said "OK".  The problem is "OK"  could mean "I have no clue".  Still not feeling confident. 

We arrived at the toll both and luckily there was some traffic.  As we were sitting there waiting to pay we saw the mini bus.  I told Mr. Xue but he acted like he couldn't see it.  Lucky for him he went through the toll booth and then pulled over to the side of the road to wait.  I might have come unglued if he hadn't.  We waited for the mini bus to go by.  When it finally did we realized it was not our school.  OH NO.  Thank goodness there was another mini bus a couple of seconds later.  This one was our school.  We both were yelling follow that bus so he took off.  A couple times he would get in front of the bus and Ileana and I were exchanging looks to each other as if to say 'what is he doing?'  Luckily we all arrived at the school.

Here is another funny part to the story.  Once we arrived I knew it all looked familiar from being there in the fall.  Ileana and I had a conversation about it being IST and not TSI (yes, the same as Cameron's school) but she said they were the same.  After the first game I realized TIS and IST are NOT the same.  This means the card with the map Heather sent us was to the wrong school.  Thank goodness we found the mini bus.

The funniness continues.  Ileana sent the card with the map to her sub driver so he could pick her up after the tournament.  This was before we knew it was the wrong school.  After the second game I called her (she was at the other field with 4th grade) to let her know there is a TIS and an IST in Tianjin.  Also told her the card she sent her driver was to the wrong school.  She freaked out a little and was on a mission to find someone who speaks Chinese to call her driver.  It wasn't too hard to find a Chinese speaker as you can imagine. 

In the end everyone got to and from the soccer fields safely.