Always check your plane ticket before going to the airport.

My last day in Shanghai was another unintentional adventure. After arriving at the airport with my uncle, I proceeded to one of the TV screens to check the status of my flight. ANA flight to Tokyo departing at 10:15am. I looked across the board to see what the time was. Searching, searching, ahh. 9:45am. WHAT??!! Fear seized me and for a moment I couldn't move. I had thought the flight was at 12:00! Stupid me, I forgot to check my plane ticket. I tried to explain to my uncle that I had half an hour to catch my flight, and that I'll probably miss it, but he didn't speak English well and didn't understand why I was suddenly so flustered. With a sprained ankle, I couldn't walk at all, and the check-in counter was all the way at the other end of the airport. I asked my uncle to race there while I hobbled slowly behind. By the time I got there, I was dead tired, and I knew there was no chance to make the flight. Could I make my connection in Tokyo? I asked around, but they all said that it was impossible. After several agonizing trips back and forth through the airport and many fruitless attempts to rebook, I looked at my uncle with desperation and defeat, not knowing how I was going to get out of this mess. Then suddenly from out of the blue, a woman from the airline company came out of her office, looked at my ticket, went back into her office, and minutes later came back out with a stamp for tommorrow's flight- at no extra change. At that point, I didn't know how to express my thanks. Eventually, I did, and then I quickly looked for a chair to sit down in and rest my swollen ankle. I found a massage chair nearby, sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief.