well, we're here!

okay, so i'm dead tired and am not going to really try to make this readable or funny or organized in any way except chronologically.

i didn't get all that much sleep monday night because i was packing and cleaning. i think i went to bed at 3:30 am (technically tuesday), got up at 8, went back to bed at like 9:30 and got up at 11, or something. maybe i took an afternoon nap on tuesday, too. and on tuesday night i didn't sleep at all because i had to move all the stuff i brought from home into suitcases. plus, i was supposed to be at the airport at 5 am on wednesday, and i wasn't going to risk oversleeping that one.

here's a pic of what our overall flight schedule for the trip was supposed to be (note that all times are local):



so anyway, we (me and my classmates) got to the airport at 5 am only to learn that our flight to denver was delayed. this meant we would be missing our connecting flight from denver to san francisco. since neither of our professors were there, we weren't really sure what to do. luckily, united had it covered, although it took forever to get things straightened out. adding stress to the situation was that our group of fifteen students was split in two, with half getting to san fran one way and half another. my group was put on a 9:30 am (central) plane to san francisco that would stop in denver to let passengers off and on. this plane was delayed, too, because of strong winds or low visibility or something in san fran. what i enjoyed about these two flights was the fact that they played one episode each of the office and 30 rock in flight. both were episodes that i'd seen already, and the episodes they played on the way to denver were the same ones they played on the way to san fran. but of all the tv shows they could have played, that was about as good as it could get. what kind of surprised me was that, since the san fran flight was longer and they started playing another show after the office and 30 rock to fill the time, the show they chose was desperate housewives, and the episode they chose was the series premiere, in the first few minutes of which a woman shoots herself. i was hoping there were no kids on the plane seeing that. also, the flight to san fran allowed me maybe a little bit of sleep. i don't remember if i really slept or if i was just dozing (which is the case for much of this trip), but i think i can say i got at least 20 minutes in, and at that point i hadn't slept in about 24 hours. i also enjoyed these flights because they allow me to say that i've been to denver and san fran (and CO and CA), even though i never left the airports.

we ended up arriving in san francisco around 1:20 pm (pacific, 3:20 central), where the other group was waiting for us. by the time we switched to the international terminal, checked in with air china, and went through security again, it was almost 2:00, and our flight was supposed to leave at 2:20.

(one quick note about security - at the san fran airport, i was put in one of those full body blow tester things. i'm pretty sure i was chosen at random to do this, but it was an interesting little experience. the machine blows air on you and then analyzes the material that comes off of you to test it for any suspicious substances. i'm pretty sure i was chosen at random to be subjected to that test, and insert a joke i'm too tired to write about how i totally look like a terrorist.)

anyway, this would have been a tight rush, but we found out that our beijing flight was delayed, too! you have to realize that at 2:00 pm pacific, it was 4:00 central. we had arrived at the airport in mpls at 5:00 am central. we had already been traveling for 11 hours. the reason for our beijing delay is actually pretty interesting. apparently a volcano in eastern russia was erupting, and for that reason, we had to change our flight path, and changing our flight path meant getting approval from countries whose airspace we would now be using and approval from beijing as well. for hours we had no idea when we were leaving. air china eventually announced at 5:00 pm (7 pm central) that they would begin the boarding procedure. the wait was annoying, but it allowed me time to eat delicious, overpriced airport restaurant potstickers, a whole bunch of snacks my mom sent with me, and most importantly, the time to meet all of my classmates and talk with/kinda get to know some of them, which was fun. it was also at this point that i had the following interesting conversation with collin when he called me back after i left him a message telling him to look up this volcano business. my approximate memory of the conversation:

collin: volcano, eh?
me: yeah, isn't that crazy!?
collin: yeah, i can't find any news on it. dan says there was an earthquake in laos, though. 6.3 on the richter scale. and isn't laos the capital of south korea or something?

i then questioned collin's geography skills, since not only is laos a country, not a city, but it isn't near south korea at all, and in any event, an earthquake in either of those places would not affect our ability to get to beijing.

here is a really sloppy copy i made of my memory of our final flight plan from san fran to beijing as it was shown to us. it was interesting because we flew south over japan and south korea and then back north to beijing. and it looked like the flight was angled to avoid flying over north korea and north korean waters.



if i remember correctly, the flight from san francisco finally left at 6:20 (8:20 central) or so - the plane took a long time to fill because it was HUGE and crowded with people. getting on that plane was when i really realized that i was for real going to china. it was the last flight of the trip there, and not only were the staff of the airplane all mandarin speakers (although they knew some english), but so where many of the passengers. i didn't sit next to anyone i knew, but i was on an aisle, which was a plus. it was a long flight, but i didn't get as much done as i would have liked because i was in a zombie-like state of tiredness by then, but i couldn't sleep well because sleeping in airplane chairs sucks. i can kind of recap when i might have slept by recalling (or being unable to recall) the in-flight movies.

the first was a french movie called le papillon. i was hoping it would actually be in french, but it was dubbed over in chinese and had chinese and english subtitles. it seemed like it was on crack, but maybe that's because i wasn't paying attention and was half asleep and maybe for real asleep during parts of it. no, wait. i know i slept during part of it because we were fed at some point during the movie, and i had been for real in deep sleep right before we ate. i was way out of it when i ate, too. by this time, it was probably around 8 or 9 pacific, so 10 or 11 central.

then, i think, came rocky balboa. my memory of the situation goes like this: i see the studio intro come up and prepare to play the game of "who can name the movie first" with myself. anna and i used to play this game after watching shows on tbs. i remember seeing the beginning few minutes, realizing it was rocky balboa, and promptly deciding to go to sleep. i slept through the entire thing. then, i think came dreamgirls. blah. i slept/read/zombied through that one, too. i remember waking up after one doze and squinting, since my glasses were off, to see (since you couldn't hear unless you had earphones on) jennifer hudson mouth the phrase, "and i am telling you..." good timing, self. i watched, but didn't listen to, that song and then went back to sleep. then there was a cute chinese, i think, movie about a woman with breast cancer. it was cheesy and i really liked it. then there was happy feet. i think that's everything. we finally got to beijing on thursday at 10:30 pm beijing time, which would be 8:30 am or 9:30 am thursday in minnesota, i can't remember exactly which. we were supposed to get to beijing at 5:00 pm beijing time. by this point, we had been traveling for about 27 or 28 hours. it both does and doesn't seem like it took that long. due to all the time zone changes and lack of sleep my sense of time is way off.

i didn't have window seats on any of our flights, but the san fran-beijing one had the best stolen views - of the mountains in ca as we took off and of the lights of beijing as we landed. from what i saw, beijing looks to be pretty big/spread out. we met up with our profs w/o a hitch and got on a bus where they gave us water and snickers bars, which we all greatly appreciated. here are a few pics i took of the airport from the bus.


the above is yao ming and jackie chan showing off their visas in ads that mention/promote the '08 beijing olympics.


we got to our sweet hotel at a little after midnight, when i was very happy to do several things: 1.) wash my face, 2.) brush my teeth, 3.) change my clothes, 4.) eat sweet food (oreos), 5.) plug in my laptop and get on the internet which totally made it worth the trouble of carting it around in my backpack through four airports and going through security with it twice, and 6.) climb into bed for a couple hours of real sleep, which is what i will do as soon as i hit submit on this post.

it is now 3:51 am. it either 1:51 or 2:51 pm in minneapolis right now. you'll be able to tell which is correct by the timestamp on this entry. shift mpls time forward 13 or 14 hours and you get beijing time. we're getting up tomorrow to go to the forbidden city. if i remember, i'll post the itinerary of our trip, a map of beijing and shanghai, and maybe i'll make one of those sweet new google maps you can make. my alarm is set for 7:30. i need to go to bed. i'll close with a few pics i took of our hotel room. after posting these, i will have posted all the pics i've taken so far - a surprisingly low number.