I'll be traveling together with the other Engineering Diplomats, our administrative advisor Dr. Orkwis, and his two sons Jacob and Jonathan.
Before we could go off to China, I had to quickly move out of my apartment, visit home, pack and get back to Cincinnati all within 24 hours. After that marathon was over, it was time to finish some final prep for the trip itself.
None of the people in our group are fluent in Mandarin, but we had an expert travel planner in charge of our trip (thank you Sherry) so I am confident we'll all be fine. I did study Mandarin for two years in high school, but I think I've forgotten most of it (or it's at least not in recallable memory at the moment). It will be interesting to see if I can remember anything useful while I'm there. I also want to give a nice shootout to my friend Zhe who made me some note cards with foods in Mandarin (and English) so that I can at least get some good food while I'm there.
Since we decided not to bring any laptops due to the security risk and firewall issues, Liz and Matt came over to finish up the presentation. It's done, but we ended up not sleeping much in our efforts to get it done.
We left super early in the morning. I wanted to get some donuts on the way out of town, but the donut shop was opening later than scheduled :(
We got to the airport, got checked in, and made it through security without issue. I think this is the first time I haven't set off the security alarm, which made it much less of a hassle. Our first flight was to Detroit in a tiny airplane with tiny seats, but luckily the flight was super short. It was slightly delayed because one of the plane's computers wouldn't power up, but they were able to fix it and we didn't have too much of a delayed arrival. We still made it to Detroit before my parents made it back to Columbus! Lil Mao got some snacks on the plane, and the rest of us took a pretty solid nap.
The flight attendant gave me a really hard time when I asked her what kind of cookies they had, but she made up for it later by giving me some advice about eating them. Apparently if you put lime juice on the cookies they taste like key lime pie, or you can use them as a crust for other kinds of pie. I'll have to give it a try sometime!
Once we landed in Detroit, I got a severe winter storm warning, and we found out that our flight was delayed 30 minutes. It was definitely snowing with no signs of stopping, so I was really hoping our flight didn't get cancelled.
Since this next flight was 13 hours, I decided to do some preflight exercises while waiting in the terminal (Just a few push-ups, burpees, and stretches). Highly recommended prior to long flights. Once we got on the plane, we had to wait forever for a spot in line to take off, but we also had to wait in line to de-ice the plane. From the time we got to our seats until the time we actually took off, another 2 hours had passed.
I watched all of Finding Dory, and Liz crocheted an entire hat before we were even in the air. She was super awesome and knitted Lil Mao his own hat and scarf to keep warm during our travels!
We finally took off, and got our China entry form filled out. The flight attendant for a paper cut so there was blood all over mine. She was super nice, and even gave me a new clean one for no extra charge. Once we took off, I'm not sure exactly how long I slept, but it was plenty. I also tried to catch up on a few more movies, but that did not work out exactly as planned; I only saw the first few minutes of Suicide Squad before falling asleep, and then only the first few minutes of the 5th Wave before falling asleep as well.
My strategy to fight the jet lag was to wake up at about 10 or 11 AM Beijing time and stay awake on the flight from then on. So after I woke up, I walked around the plane for a bit and tried my best to do a few stretches. Then I read an entire book, and when I finished I just listened to some music and hung out for a while.
Once we made it to Beijing, we got through immigration control and customs no problem. Then we went on an adventure to find Jacob and Jonathan. None of us realized we landed at different terminals, so we had an interesting time finding each other. The terminal we landed in was super small and underwhelming, but the main terminal where we met up with everyone was absolutely incredible. Much more what I was expecting from the capital of China.
We all met up and took a shuttle bus to the hotel. I tried my best not to fall asleep, but it was really a struggle.
Once we got to the hotel, we realized how hungry we were and decided on some dinner even though it was 10 pm local time to avoid waking up with horrible hunger pains that night. We had a nice assortment of Chinese cuisine, and I found it interesting that the hostess kept asking me if I realized this place served Chinese food.
Not pictured: Longfujing tea (green tea).
Then we basically went back to the room, took showers, and passed out. I was so exhausted from all of the traveling. I'm super excited to be here, but the one thing that concerns me is the smog. The air is so hazy tonight. I think it's never good when I can assess the air quality visually.. Even inside, the air is fuzzy. If my kitchen back in Cincinnati ever had air looking like this, I'd be trying to figure out what's on fire... Outside it's even worse-- think fog but with a grey green discoloration. We have some masks to wear (all the rage here in Beijing), but hopefully it's better outside of Beijing!
I'll get this posted tomorrow after I've figured out the VPN~
None of the people in our group are fluent in Mandarin, but we had an expert travel planner in charge of our trip (thank you Sherry) so I am confident we'll all be fine. I did study Mandarin for two years in high school, but I think I've forgotten most of it (or it's at least not in recallable memory at the moment). It will be interesting to see if I can remember anything useful while I'm there. I also want to give a nice shootout to my friend Zhe who made me some note cards with foods in Mandarin (and English) so that I can at least get some good food while I'm there.
Since we decided not to bring any laptops due to the security risk and firewall issues, Liz and Matt came over to finish up the presentation. It's done, but we ended up not sleeping much in our efforts to get it done.
We left super early in the morning. I wanted to get some donuts on the way out of town, but the donut shop was opening later than scheduled :(
We got to the airport, got checked in, and made it through security without issue. I think this is the first time I haven't set off the security alarm, which made it much less of a hassle. Our first flight was to Detroit in a tiny airplane with tiny seats, but luckily the flight was super short. It was slightly delayed because one of the plane's computers wouldn't power up, but they were able to fix it and we didn't have too much of a delayed arrival. We still made it to Detroit before my parents made it back to Columbus! Lil Mao got some snacks on the plane, and the rest of us took a pretty solid nap.
Once we landed in Detroit, I got a severe winter storm warning, and we found out that our flight was delayed 30 minutes. It was definitely snowing with no signs of stopping, so I was really hoping our flight didn't get cancelled.
Since this next flight was 13 hours, I decided to do some preflight exercises while waiting in the terminal (Just a few push-ups, burpees, and stretches). Highly recommended prior to long flights. Once we got on the plane, we had to wait forever for a spot in line to take off, but we also had to wait in line to de-ice the plane. From the time we got to our seats until the time we actually took off, another 2 hours had passed.
We finally took off, and got our China entry form filled out. The flight attendant for a paper cut so there was blood all over mine. She was super nice, and even gave me a new clean one for no extra charge. Once we took off, I'm not sure exactly how long I slept, but it was plenty. I also tried to catch up on a few more movies, but that did not work out exactly as planned; I only saw the first few minutes of Suicide Squad before falling asleep, and then only the first few minutes of the 5th Wave before falling asleep as well.
My strategy to fight the jet lag was to wake up at about 10 or 11 AM Beijing time and stay awake on the flight from then on. So after I woke up, I walked around the plane for a bit and tried my best to do a few stretches. Then I read an entire book, and when I finished I just listened to some music and hung out for a while.
Once we made it to Beijing, we got through immigration control and customs no problem. Then we went on an adventure to find Jacob and Jonathan. None of us realized we landed at different terminals, so we had an interesting time finding each other. The terminal we landed in was super small and underwhelming, but the main terminal where we met up with everyone was absolutely incredible. Much more what I was expecting from the capital of China.
Our arrival terminal
Main terminal
Once we got to the hotel, we realized how hungry we were and decided on some dinner even though it was 10 pm local time to avoid waking up with horrible hunger pains that night. We had a nice assortment of Chinese cuisine, and I found it interesting that the hostess kept asking me if I realized this place served Chinese food.
Jellyfish
Pork
Steamed vegetables
Fried rice
Chicken feet / custard filled steam bun
Not pictured: Longfujing tea (green tea).
Then we basically went back to the room, took showers, and passed out. I was so exhausted from all of the traveling. I'm super excited to be here, but the one thing that concerns me is the smog. The air is so hazy tonight. I think it's never good when I can assess the air quality visually.. Even inside, the air is fuzzy. If my kitchen back in Cincinnati ever had air looking like this, I'd be trying to figure out what's on fire... Outside it's even worse-- think fog but with a grey green discoloration. We have some masks to wear (all the rage here in Beijing), but hopefully it's better outside of Beijing!
I'll get this posted tomorrow after I've figured out the VPN~
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