Day One -- travel

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Hi there folks. Well, it's almost 2AM in Beijing, and my body just decided to realize it's in China, so I'm wide awake, and thought I would fill you in on our trevails in the process of getting here.

Thankfully, we stayed in KC the night before the trip so we didn't have to tack on an additional few hours to an already long trip. We had some issues with the weight limits for bags in going through KCI (they're really sensitive about 6lbs and I think some of these burly union workers need to suck it up). Thus, we all had to pull out the empty duffels we were bringing for souvenirs and do an impromptu unpack and repack on the floor. I need to apologize to Courtney for the havoc that was wrought on the beautiful folding and packing job she had done. That multiplication of our bags would come back to bite one intrepid member of our group in Beijing.

Sitting in O'Hare, we felt legitimately cocky about our chances of making it through this flight unscathed. In fact, we began to talk about this trip as just an impressively long run for Chinese food. Word to the wise: do not mock a 14-hour plane flight for in the end you will be hoist by your own petard. Turns out, that's a really long time to sit in a plane, and this condition was made worse by the fact that we all had middle seats and were scattered all over the plane. I was on the other side of the bulkhead from everybody else. I did learn a few things over the course of that flight:


*There is nothing redeeming about the film 27 dresses
* It takes at least an hour for the tailbone to bounce back from major sitting trauma
* It is impossible to eat noodles in the middle seat


Once in Beijing, we got to experience the sheer size of the new terminal China has built for the Olympics. It's the largest indoor space in the world, and it feels that way. This is Mark, Chris, and Kevin showing their enthusiasm as we move down the corridor toward immigration.



We made it through immigration without a hitch, and this picture is me standing in front of the line of "Chinese Nationals" going through the fast line. Look to anybody else like some of these people might be fudging a bit?



This is when disaster struck on a couple fronts. We had to wait till the very end of baggage unloading to determine that Girouard's secondary duffel that KCI imposed on him was missing. United says they will bring it by the compound today, and we are hoping that they do, because it contained all G's underwear and personal hygiene items. If not, we will have a very smelly commando in our midst. The trauma continued when Elizabeth Clark and I both discovered that the ATMs (despite assurances to the contrary) would not allow us to withdraw money. At the moment, I am living on the mercy of others, but Courtney thinks she found a solution back home, so I get to go try again today. Fingers crossed.

One of the highlights of the day was the valiant performance of our driver from the airport, who had another appointment to get to, so set what I'm sure are land speed records while dodging in and out of Beijing traffic, frequently using the median and other non-road surfaces in the process. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but we made great time. In fact, we couldn't see any way that he would not receive our clutch play of the day award, until we got supper.

Supper was definitely the finest Chinese meal I've ever had (go figure), and ranks among the best meals period. That sentiment seemed to be shared by Girouard and Buchheit. We were planning on wandering around Daxing (the plan involved getting taken to McD's and walking aimlessly from there) until we found food, when Vincent (our host) suggested that we should meet him in the lobby for supper after showering. He took us to a private room with a big table, and we were served family style on a lazy susan. We started with cold appetizers in the form of sliced beef kidney, some delicious smoked fish from the river, and a bunch of pickled vegetables. Vincent also won his way into my heart by suggesting that we needed some beer. I have no idea what it was called, but the domestic beer we had was delicious. Perhaps even better than the fact that I finally got to try Chinese beer was that they went all-in with the drinks. We got chrysanthemum tea (which is terrific) and coke in addition. It's also customary here that if you drink something down, it gets refilled, and we had the nicest waitress who kept us topped off all night. The same rule applies to food. The chef prepared us what can only be described as a ridiculous amount of food, and the dishes just kept coming. I took this picture to document the table at one point in the meal.



See the big steaming pot? It is the best soup of sheep's testicles I have ever eaten. I do want to note that although they provided forks out of courtesy, all of us manned up and rocked the chopsticks.

Up next... The Forbidden City and the epic quest for an ATM that will hook me up.

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Comments

[Aunt Peg]

Good Times!
Wow, what an experience! I hope you can figure out the ATM thing. I'm sure the food is pretty incredible. Keep us up to date on the odd things you eat. Your FAVORITE Aunt, Aunt Peg

[Sarah]

Really?
So, you wouldn't recommend "27 Dresses"?