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room
This is my room. Not a very interesting travel destination for most people, but whatever. It is 5:30 in the morning, and I’m writing this because I can’t go back to sleep and I don’t have anything better to do. I would have thought that sleeping would never be a problem for me, but I guess a 12-hour time difference will do that to you. The flight over was about as good as one can expect from a 13-hour flight over the north pole on an aging United Airlines flight that still has ashtrays in the bathroom and a stairwell at the front of the plane. I got to watch three mediocre movies and sample some airline cuisine, which I have somehow avoided for the past three years. I guess that would be because I haven’t ridden on an international flight, or really even gone out of the country, since my trip to Germany the summer of junior year in high school. And on that flight I spent about an hour in the bathroom with horrible stomach cramps, so anything is better than that. Also, I met a girl who is part of the Emory program on my connecting flight to Washington D.C., so being able to talk to her on the flight to Beijing
view
This is the view from my room. This is facing towards the north eastern skyline of Beijing, but you can't really see anything important. I think. helped make it a little less boring. And she traveled to Beijing last summer, so she helped me get through customs and everything without worrying so much about making a fool of myself that I did something stupid.
Once we got off the flight we got to hang around the airport for a little bit. I would say that Beijing airport is pretty nice, and easy to navigate (especially compared to Hartsfield International). I was really surprised to see so many American tourists, both on the flight over and at the airport. It was especially interesting because they were all either young students, like myself or younger, or elderly people who looked like they were there to see the sights. And the massive amount of tourists led to a massive amount of Chinese people with signs attached to flag poles waiting outside the terminal to guide the way. The place where we exited was pretty packed with people, so I kind of wonder how that will work during the Olympics.
When the organizers of the Emory program finally gathered everyone together, we went outside to get on the bus. I hadn’t really seen any of Beijing until we
other view out my window
The stairs on this pedestrian bridge are very small, so it is kind of awkward for me to walk up them. stepped out of the airport, because I had a center seat on the plane. It was raining, gray, dripping wet, with construction equipment everywhere and some very dilapidated buildings. Basically it looked like some very depressing scene from Bladerunner. Yeah, not very positive, but whatever. The drive to the Liyun Apartotel (I’m only calling it an Apartotel because that is what it says in the guide. I don’t really have any clue who came up with the word apartotel, but I’m sure whoever did had too much time on their hands and some corporate dude looking over their shoulder) where we are staying pretty much featured more of the same. Some of the buildings that I saw looked nice, but most of them were gray and shabby apartment buildings. Sorta like the projects. Of course, I think that the generally gray weather and my generally tired and withdrawn mood after the flight probably affected some of my opinion.
On the other hand, once we got to the apartotel my room turned out to be really nice. As you can see in the pictures, very Ikea-like furniture and very functional, but in a comfortable way. For anyone who saw my
kite-flying
This man is flying a kite, and he has a really cool kite-reel thing. Maybe if I had the guts to go up and talk to him I would have taken a better picture. room at Rhodes this year, or the way I completely trashed my room at home before I left, you will understand how much of an improvement this is. Hopefully since I didn’t bring that much stuff to China I won’t be able to make this room that dirty, but who knows. After we checked in we went to a Chinese restaurant around the corner. It was very authentic, with some of the food tasting really good and some of it really awful and a lot of it going to waste because there was so much and most of us (the about 15 students who make up the Emory program) were too overwhelmed and tired to eat much. At least I was. Once we were finished we went to a Chinese grocery store and I actually bought some stuff (which I made way to stressful for myself) and then got the evil eye from the cashier when I didn’t have any small change. Then I fell asleep. And then I woke up at 4 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. So here I am.
In the future I probably won’t write this much, because I just wrote
boat under the bridge
This is way more deluxe than living in a van down by the river. On another note, Beijing is apparently having a really bad water crisis, so besides this canal I haven't seen a lot of bodies of water (all the fountains are empty). a little about basically nothing interesting or new, but it is early in the morning and normally the only writing I do early in the morning is when I am writing a paper at the last minute, so I must just be in a very verbose state of mind. Also, now that I’m in China I realized that I’m gonna be in China for a month, which you would have thought I’d have realized before I left but somehow I just didn’t think about that. It’s gonna be interesting. And probably a lot of fun, as long as I don’t just get embarrassed every time I have to speak Chinese or do something I haven’t done before. Or wake up every morning at 4 and not be able to go back to sleep.
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jacda
Daniel J.
To get to the other entries just click on my picture, and it will take you to a list of them. Yes, I have have definately been craving pasta and sauce. I think one morning I actually woke up and just started thinking about eating a bowl of spaghetti, and I couldn't help but smiling. Chinese food is good, but it takes some getting used to.