I got up at 4am, ate breakfast, said bye to Grania (!!!!),
and Mom and I headed to Orlando. I had to pay $275 for my overweight bags, in
addition to the $75 for a 2nd bag. They were 65lbs and 75lbs. No wonder I couldn’t lift them. They were the
size of small child. A and G really could have fit into one of these. J
I got
in the security line after saying bye to Mom. That was hard. We both teared up
and she waited by the side until we couldn’t see each other anymore. The 1st
leg of my journey was easy: Orlando to Detroit. I sat by a kid beauty queen.
She came on the plane all dolled up, with a crown on and everything. It was
funny. I cried as we lifted off, knowing it would be a long time before I came
to Florida.
I had
to 2 hour layover in Detroit. I liked that the airport was already getting me
ready for China. All the signs were in Japanese, Chinese, and English. I guess there’s a large population of
Japanese and Chinese here. Maybe with the cars?
 |
| My plane to China |
As I waited at the gate, I noticed that I was in the
minority. I figured get used to it
now.
 |
| Def in the minority.... |
I flew Delta on Economy Comfort,
which is DEFINITELY the way to go. I paid $119 extra and it was SO worth
it. Extra legroom and seat room. I
highly recommend it. I could stretch my legs full out. As we took off, I cried again saying goodbye
to the states. It also didn’t help that I glanced at my henna tattoo on my left
hand. G did it the night before I left so that got me crying again.
The flight was 13 hours to
Beijing. I had a window seat, but it was
over the wing so I didn’t have the best views.
 |
| Only 12 hours left.... Notice flight pattern |
 |
| Over Greenland. Look way close over the wing. |
I saw the blue blue water from
the glaciers in Greenland and some awesome cracked icebergs when we went over
the North Pole.
 |
| You can kinda make out the ice blue water. |
 |
| North Pole!! Look how white is it!! |
 |
| Just for G. Can you guess what I DIDN'T watch?! tee hee |
I’m not
sure which was we flew. Whenever I checked flight 189, it always flew up to
Canada, over to Alaska, across the Beiring Strait, down through Siberia, and to
Beijing. But, I noticed, that we were flying over Newfoundland, Greenland, and
Europe.
 |
| See how we're coming in over the middle of Siberia? |
I thought it was strange (I was
tracking us on the plane tracker thing located on the TV in the back of the
seats in front of me). We got got closer to Beijing, the tracker suddenly
changed back to the route across Alaska, so I’m really not sure where we flew.
 |
| Presto chango! New route! |
The
food was pretty decent. 2 full meals and a snack. I spent a lot of time
watching the views change from outside the window. I watched 3 movies: One Day
with Anne Hathaway, Pitch Perfect, and something else. The people next to me
requested I close both my windows about halfway through the flight so I didn’t
get to see a lot of the scenery after that. I went to the bathroom a bagillion time on the
plane. I kept chugging water. I felt bad because everytime I had to go was
right when the food service started. I’d have to move between my 2 seatmates.
I’d come back and they’d already have their food, which they’d then have to
place in their laps and bring up their tray tables. I guess my body has impeccable timing. The last service, I just waited behind the
last seat by the bathroom until they were done serving. I did a lot of
stretching and running in place. I had a cramp in my upper left leg that I was
working out. I’m pretty sure I looked silly doing yoga poses and stretching,
but it felt lovely.
Once our final meal was done and
the captain said we had about 30 minutes til we landed. I said “Screw it” and
opened my window. Sunlight streamed in and the scenery took my breath away. I
audibly said “Wow!” We were flying over mountains and they were gorgeous.
 |
| First view of China |
It was so blue up where we were, but as we
started descending, I began to see the smog that lay over Beijing. It was still
a gorgeous day, which I hear is rare for Beijing: blue skies and all.
 |
| Good ole smog hanging in the air |
I got
off the plane and went through immigration. It was really easy. The hard part
came trying to pick up my baggage. I got
a cart, but trying to lift 2 bags onto a small cart and them push them was hard. I had to shove all my bags onto an xray
device once I was done with immigration. The guy was talking to me about how
much he liked my henna, but what I really wanted to say was “Help me with my
bags!” The airport was kinda warm and hemming and hawing trying to lift these
bags made me really hot and sweaty. It also didn’t help that it was 3:00am EST
and I was exhausted.
I got
through the xray device, loaded my bags back up only to find I had to go
through another one. Luckily, an Chinese man unloaded and then reloaded them
for me. I was so greatful.
From
Beijing to Hangzhou, I was flying China Southern Air. They had a counter right
after I got done with the xrays. Here is where they told me, I had to pay for
my overweight bags and my 2nd one AGAIN! They said I paid for my
bags only to Beijing. 275 RMB, which I don’t know how much that is in USD. I
had my bag taken care of and then I had to go find out where to pay. I wandered
all over the airport, going from one counter to the next. Having my ticket
looked at, taken away, paide for my bags, got my ticket back, and then finally
got through security. I didn’t even have
to take my shoes off, which was nice.
Most of
the signs were in English and I saw a few foreigners wandering around. It was weird hearing only Chinese. Many of the words sound like words I am
familiar with in Japanese, but I doubt they mean the same thing. After
security, I wandered to find the bathroom and found my first squatty potty,
just for V and G. Luckily, they had a few Western toilets. I waited about 3
hours in the Beijing airport. It was
hard trying to figure out where my flight was.
The boards kept changing so fast. I’d find my flight number only to have
it switch to Chinese before I could see what gate.
I
finally found it and walked to domestic departures. I was the only Western face
in a sea of Chinese people. I sat amidst
a camp group from the university in Hangzhou. A bunch of kids, who were fun to
watch. The flight was delayed about an hour so we finally got into the air
around 8pm.
 |
| Waiting at the gate |
The
seats were really uncomfortable and hard. I tried to sleep because I was tired.
I dozed off and on. I could see the flights on Hangzhou as we began to land.
What really surprised me was as the plane landed, people started jumping
up to get their things and crowding the aisles. The doors weren’t even open and
people we pushing to go. The Chinese lady next to me started to push me to get
out as well. No one was moving because the doors weren’t open yet, but she sure
tried. It was ridiculous. This was my first experience with the pushing and I’m
sure it won’t be my last.
Arriving
in Hangzhou made me so happy. I was going to be going home soon. Went to the bathroom and had a hard time
finding a Western toilet. I knew there was no way I could focus on trying to
use a squatty potty so it took a while, entering all the bathrooms til I found
one. All the signs were no longer in English.
I got my luggage (they were the only one going around the carosel) and
loaded up my cart. As soon as I left the place, I saw Kory and the driver
holding a sign that said “Hangzhou International School Welcomes Amy Darden.”
They were both waving and driving. I muttered “Finally” with a big grin of my
face. Kory welcomed me and I gave him a
huge hug. Kory is the Upper School Principal and he’s also Ember husband. Ember
is my teammate so I felt like I knew him already. He gave me a bottle of water and said we were waiting on 2 more people.
We
chatted for a while as we waited. He said that most Chinese carriers are
delayed. After another hours, T came out, but R never came. We found out she
missed her connecting flight and wouldn’t be coming in. We took all of our luggage out of to the van
and into the night we went. It took about 30 minutes to get to HIS. Kory
pointed out things as we drove past them.
We
dropped T off at his in-campus apt. Psyche came tover to get him settles and
Charles, the Lower School Principal jumped in the van with me and took me
off-campus to my place. I’m in Ease Sky across the street from the school and
on the 4th floor. I walked in and thought, “This is cute!”
It’s a
2 bedroom, 1 bath apartment. Kory said the ones on campus and bigger with 2
bathroom, but there are pros and cons to each place. So far, I really like my
place. They gave me a bunch of stuff, my keys, and then left. It was around
12am. I unpacked a few things, put my comfy sheets on my massively hard
kingsize bed, took a shower, and went to sleep.
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