Lost and Found

Quick story before I head down to the Olympic Green for Athletics tonight (this story will be followed either tonight or tomorrow by the story of the actual game):

On the way to The Denmark, a local Beijing bar frequented by Danish, European and American people alike, after Denmark's win in Handball over Germany the other night, I somehow left my phone in my lap and when I got out it must have fell in the cab unbeknownst to be. I had met a ton of amazing Danish people on the subway and at the game and was riding in the cab with three of them. After getting to the bar and realizing my phone was gone I obviously lashed out in rage and started throwing things. Well not quite rage and throwing things, but I was pretty upset because to get another phone would take way too much time and effort and money and we only had a little over a week left. Let me also say that a cell phone here is COMPLETELY NECESSARY! So the thought of all those things crossing my mind made me quite worried and essential ended the night of revelry that was expected after the Danish victory. So...this is where the kindness of a lot of people come in. I used one Danish girls phone to do the only thing I could think of and call my phone back. Someone answered and in decent English I thought they told me the cab driver would come back to the bar. Well that didn't happen. I used another Danish guys phone to call again, this time the person answered in Chinese. Long story short, over the course of the next hour/hour and a half I continued to use the Danish guys phone and three Chinese people stopped on the street outside the bar to help me translate whatever the person on the other side was saying. Finally after the 3rd guy finished translating he told me to go back to my University and the phone would be waiting there. I profusely thanked the Danish people for their help and hustled into a cab over to Renmin only to find a group of Mizzou students waiting next to two cabs. Sure enough one of the cabbies had my phone! The Mizzou people had tried to explain that they knew me but the women said she would only give it to me, how amazing is that! I tried offering her money but she refused and instead just wanted a hug and a picture. Three other people have seen their phones disappear is cabs here, but after almost 2 hours of calling and pleading and the like, I got my phone back for a hug and a picture. Crazy, crazy stuff!