Sunday's Blog:
After quite the arduous journey the first group of us finally arrived in Beijing today!I’m starting to develop a flying curse. Our flight from Buffalo to Newark was delayed about two hours because apparently they had the wrong plane on the Newark to Buffalo trip and had to switch it before leaving. That two hours was almost exactly the time of our layover in Newark before boarding for Beijing. We ended up taking off at Buffalo about 11:15 (instead of 8:40, and our flight to Beijing was set to begin boarding at 11:25, but we were assured in Buffalo “there would be no problems.”) At about 11:55 one of the kindly flight attendants told us unless we landed by 12 we weren’t going to make it (and we were 15 minutes away). Hurray for Continental’s “no wait” policy. They will be receiving a very strongly worded letter.After having to wait for incompetent grounds crews to pull the gate up to the plane, we ran to the gate for Beijing (luckily right across the hall), arriving at 12:32 with really no hope for getting on, only to find that the plane had been delayed 20 minutes and was set to leave the terminal at 12:35, phew! They quickly checked us in and we got on the plane only to find some punk kids had taken our seats so we didn’t even get to sit together, but at least we got there.
After quite the arduous journey the first group of us finally arrived in Beijing today!I’m starting to develop a flying curse. Our flight from Buffalo to Newark was delayed about two hours because apparently they had the wrong plane on the Newark to Buffalo trip and had to switch it before leaving. That two hours was almost exactly the time of our layover in Newark before boarding for Beijing. We ended up taking off at Buffalo about 11:15 (instead of 8:40, and our flight to Beijing was set to begin boarding at 11:25, but we were assured in Buffalo “there would be no problems.”) At about 11:55 one of the kindly flight attendants told us unless we landed by 12 we weren’t going to make it (and we were 15 minutes away). Hurray for Continental’s “no wait” policy. They will be receiving a very strongly worded letter.After having to wait for incompetent grounds crews to pull the gate up to the plane, we ran to the gate for Beijing (luckily right across the hall), arriving at 12:32 with really no hope for getting on, only to find that the plane had been delayed 20 minutes and was set to leave the terminal at 12:35, phew! They quickly checked us in and we got on the plane only to find some punk kids had taken our seats so we didn’t even get to sit together, but at least we got there.
The flight was LONG, but not horrible. I watched 4 movies, 3 sitcoms, abandoned one impossible Sudoku and began reading my top 100 drug interaction book. Holler!Naturally because of the quick off and on of the planes Continental was not able to get our checked luggage on the plane to China. Hopefully we’ll get them tomorrow!After arriving in Beijing we were greeted by our tour guide, Frank, and brought to the Crowne Royal Beijing where we’ll stay all week. Frank told us all sorts of history and facts about the city on the way but I was really not paying attention because I was very tired, and much more interested by the buildings that changed colors. Something about pollution, and earthquakes, and the Olympics. Blah blah blahWe dropped our bags (carry-ons only of course) and set out to explore the immediate area. Well actually the plan was to find food and a department store that sold bathing suits in the middle of Winter because we really wanted to use the hotel’s Jacuzzi/spa. I also accomplished one of my few goals for the trip, which was to find a Chinese pharmacy. (Pictured below) It was awesome. They had sea horses and lots of dead creatures and it smelled like odd spices. They had all the medications in glass counters like a jewelry store, and sadly I could recognize some of them based on packaging despite the fact the names were in Mandarin. I tried telling them that I worked in a pharmacy and can I ask them questions about it. But in doing so I pointed to my chest, so they whipped out this laminated sheet with tussin and all sorts of cough and cold medications listed on it. Hurray language barrier!
We found bathing suits after about the 10th floor, but meanwhile did find some high class shopping malls to be tackled later. Surprisingly the part of Beijing we are in is very very clean. I was being very picky about where we ate but finally found a place that was very good as well as cheap. The entire meal (which was quite large) cost four of us 70 rmys…or yuans…or whatever their money is. IE it was less than $15 total.
My favorite part so far is how NO ONE that we’ve come into contact with besides our tour guide speaks English. It has made for some excellent discourse (or lack thereof)
With both missions accomplished we returned to the hotel, enjoyed the Jacuzzi, relaxed a bit and went to bed. Its Monday morning now and just had our 9am wakeup call so we can enjoy the day. Planning on trying out the public transport and see a bit more of the city.This would have been posted for your Sunday morning but apparently the blog portion of google is blocked in China (hurray censorship!) so I won’t be able to post these myself. Steph is going to sign in as me and post them every couple days unless I can get that resolved. Ta ta for now.
-R-
The pictures are: Snapshots of the nifty flight tracker continental provided…We went over Greenland, the north pole area, as well as Russia. Neat!
The Pharmacy I found. I think they could donate some help to Wegmans Alberta Dr!!!!Sarah and Jon in front of the really really long outdoor market (yes there were scorpions, no I did not try them)
Me being adorable in front of this neat Christmas tree and light up building in what seems to be their version of NYC Times Square.
And me eating ,my first legit Chinese meal. WITH CHOPSTICKS.
comment from steph- the photo uploader thing on here is crazy- pics may or may not be where they should be in relation to actual description. just fyi.
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