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Published: October 11th 2009
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Indy
This is part of the group trying to squeeze into the elevator at the Indy airport. Okay, so the adventure started at 6:15 this morning when Josh and I left to go pick up Ming...my travel partner for the duration of this trip. I was unaware of the fact that he had like 14 dogs that he had to get into kennels on top of the fact that he lived like 35 minutes from campus where the rental cars where (and the keys to said rental cars were with the 2 designated drivers which turned out to me Ming and myself). So in the nasty rain and in the darkness of the early morning we finally got on the road headed for Indy to start the first leg of our journey. We got to Chicago with no problem. Now, the serious leg is about to begin...14 hours to Bejing! Lucky for me, I am not the only one that shares in the idea that boarding last is the way to go so we hung out at the gate until we were forced to board the plane that we would be on for the next 14 hours! The flight went by so fast. I guess I was expecting something so much worse that it was really no that
Breakfast
Jackie and myslef decided that we needed breakfast before the Chicago flight so we shared an order of french toast :) bad. I was able to request a window seat and I was in a row with only 2 seats, so I did not feel like a sardine. Although I kept the window closed the majority of the time, I did happen to open it just in time to see breath-taking views of Siberia. I was able to take a couple photos but know that they do not do it justice. There were like 6 movies that I could watch including My Sisters Keeper (which was an insult to the book which was great) and The Hangover (which I saw in the theater and LOVED but did not care for as much the second time around. Which passed the time since I was not able to get comfortable enough to sleep at all.
Once landing in Beijing...the chaos ensued. No one knew where we were going or what we needed to do...somehow we made it to the domestic airport (we began at the international airport obviously) and it was like a 10 minute shuttle ride and let me tell you...they do not know the word maximum capacity! I was shoved into the very front by the driver but I could
Moving sidewalks
You gotta love trying to take a picture on moving sidewalks. This one was in the Chicago airport. not lean against anything otherwise I would block his mirrors so I was falling all over the place...it was the longest 10 minute shuttle ride of my life. So, when we finally made it to the right check in terminal we were told that we were too early and that we would have to wait 1 hour before we could even check in...blah blah blah...we camped out for a while then finally made our way to the gate where we all crashed during the 2 hours we had to wait for our final flight to Nanjing which is our final destination for the moment.
We were met at the airport by one of our hosts, Lisa, who is as cute as can be. We had a private bus that took us to our hotel which was about 40 minutes away from the airport. At this point, everyone (those that slept on the flights and those that could not) were DEAD. We were all delirious from the long journey it took to get us tot hat point. The hotel is great. We get our own rooms which is nice, and the pillows and comforter are to die for. I slept
Siberia
I was lucky enough to open the window in time to see the frozen mountians of Siberia. It was so beautiful...pictures can not do it justice. okay, although I woke up at 4am and was unable to really fall back asleep. There are 2 english TV stations, ESPN and a news network, but I am not complaining.
So we met in the lobby for our complimentry breakfast this morning at 9am and it was a mix of western style food (cooked in a Chinese way) and traditional Chinese breakfast foods. I ate toast and tried a few things but really did not push myself too much...have to pace after all. We are going to walk around the city as a group in about 30 minutes...hope I ate enought to sustain my energy...sounds like they want to do a lot of walking LOL. I am sure that there will be plenty of pictures of that.
We have our first banquet tonight in which we are the honore guests and this will be my first real test of the cuisin. Wish me luck!
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Josh
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What a First Day!
Considering you were on a plane for the majority of the time you had quite the action packed day. While I can imagine that your picture of Siberia does not do the landscape justice, it is amazing none the less. Oli and I miss you like crazy and hope you have a fun day around the city. Take lots of pictures but remember to slow down enough to enjoy the moment. Love you TONS!