Day 1

Wednesday, July 2 – Thursday, July 3 2014                                                           Day 1

So today was the first day of my month in China. My big Chinese adventure. I didn’t sleep at all last night. I was up late and was so tired – but my mind was racing. I laid down at about 1:30, but couldn’t sleep. After an hour or more of tossing and turning, I gave up and went to watch tv.

At 5:30 Ben and I left Columbia and headed to Charlotte to catch my 9:05 flight. All went well. Here I am about to walk into the airport J

First leg of the trip was easy. Charlotte to Newark is a short flight and I slept most of the way. I met a few of the other teachers and started to make friends. We only had an hour layover in Newark, but when we got to our gate they were already boarding. I book a business class seat for this leg of the flight and I’m so glad I did. The extra room really does make a difference. I chose a window seat (because I like to sleep without being bothered). Almost as soon as we took off I passed out. My seat mates were 2 chinese men (who weren’t there together), who did not seem to know English. We didn’t talk at all the entire flight. I slept the first 6 – 7 hours of the flight. I did wake up intermittently, but quickly fell back asleep. I was exhausted from the night before. I slept through lunch and the drink service L

When I woke up I was starving. I got up to find a flight attendant and hope to score a bag of pretzels or something. I found 2 flight attendants and co-pilot hanging out in the food prep area. I told them I slept through lunch and I was starving. The co-pilot offered to cook (microwave)  me a meal. I went back to my seat and they brought it to me 10 minutes later.

After landing in Beijing we spent hours (4+) at the airport waiting around for all the other groups to show up. Finally, my group (me and 4 others plus 2 chinese helpers) got in a van and headed to our hotel in downtown Beijing. It was a long drive and traffic was crazy, much like downtown NYC. When we got to our hotel we quickly went upstairs to set our things down and then met in the lobby to walk to dinner. Here’s the hotel room:

The restaurant:  The Big Pear

Inside the restaurant:

Chinese coke bottle: 

Timer given when we ordered. They said that when the egg timer was done our food should be ready. It was a 30 minute timer.

Our handlers ordered several dishes for us to share as a table. We had vegetable dumplings, spicy peanut chicken, celery in sauce, mushrooms in sauce, fruit salad, white steamed rice, eggplant and mixed vegetables in sauce. I liked everything except the fruit salad and dumplings and was plenty full when I left.

Then it was back to the hotel for a good nights’ rest! Great Wall of China tomorrow J