Time is ticking

The calendar turned to 2022 over the weekend, which means it is officially a Winter Olympic year. And if everything goes as planned, one month from now, I should be in Beijing for my fourth Olympic experience.

But, as I've documented here over the last few months, nothing is going as planned.

If you asked me today, I would say that the chances that I actually make it to China and see an Olympic event are probably about 15-20 percent. So, I am not terribly optimistic about everything working out like it should and it's so incredibly frustrating.

As I've written here in the past, I had booked a flight from Boston to Beijing through Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific, set to arrive on Feb. 3, the day before the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies. However, because Beijing 2022 wants us to fly into Beijing on special "temporary" flights, I contacted Cathay Pacific about getting booked on one of those from Hong Kong. The representative told me that the Boston to Hong Kong flight was cancelled and I would have to find another way. I worked with this person to try and figure out a way to make it work, but we've hit a roadblock, enough so that I have been reaching out to other airlines that are approved for those temporary flights in hopes of getting a booking on one of the flights and then possibly book myself on flights to either Seoul or Paris or basically wherever I need to in order to get on a plane to Beijing.

The other issue that has become a problem is getting the proper COVID testing approved by the Chinese government. We have been provided a list of approved providers, but none of them are anywhere near New England, making things difficult for those of us in the area trying to get to Beijing. Because we need results processed very quickly in order to get the proper QR codes to get into China, providers like CVS or Walgreens would not be ideal, as the kind of tests we need take longer to process at those locations. 

I have reached out to On-Site Medical, which does COVID testing in Manchester and the woman I have talked to when I have gotten through has been very helpful and I reached her again today and she gave me an e-mail contact to hopefully get the proper paperwork I need in order to submit it to Beijing 2022 for approval. Here's hoping that gets things moving in the right direction.

With the holidays in the rearview mirror and holiday tournaments a thing of the past, I spent today pouring over flight schedules to hopefully find a way to get there, then spent time on the phone with On-Site hoping to get the COVID tests approved. I also spent a few hours going through other Olympic information and found some great interactive photos that were provided to the media of all the venues in Beijing. It was cool to look around some of the places I might be heading to in a month.

One day at a time is the mantra right now and I am hopeful that the 15-20 percent chance I feel now increases a little bit over the next few weeks.

This is a view of the ski jumping center outside Beijing, as seen in an interactive photo from the Beijing media site.