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My journey began on a bright and sunny day. It was also very hot. Mom and I had struggled through packing, used Kiersten’s Wii fit profile to weigh my suitcases ensuring I complied with the weight limit (ask Mom for details of this story), and eliminated many things that pushed us over the weight limit. For the bouts of homesickness that are sure to happen, we packed the cards and such from my going-away party (thank you, everyone!) and a photo album.
I was well equipped with an MP4 player, a new camera, Lara bars, hand sanitizer, and cautions galore as my parents somewhat reluctantly saw me to the security gate at the airport. I made it through security without issue and continued onto what would be the first of four plane rides toward my destination in 南宁，广西，中国 (Nanning, Guangxi, China).
I flew in and out of Chicago without incident. The routine of the trip and the general atmosphere in O’Hare reminded me of all the reasons that I love travelling and why I had missed it so much. Airports are great places to watch things happen. I had Chicago pizza and chatted with Michael and Anna on the phone (I hope that you guys had fun in Michigan!) while I simultaneously watched a little girl completely fascinated with the airplanes run up and down the length of the gates describing each plane in detail to her tired mom.
The counter to check luggage for my flight to China opened an hour and a half after I arrived at the airport in LA. I spent the time hanging out with my ( buddies ) in the line, and studying the language that I will be using for the next ten months. Once relieved of my suitcases I went upstairs to the food court to buy ( dinner. )
The restaurants were limited, two high-end American restaurants (way too expensive), fast-food versions of Asian and Mexican cuisine, or McDonalds. In the end I went with a tuna roll and some edamame from the sushi bar. Perhaps it was a strange choice for my final meal in the US, but considering the options, I think I chose well.
While waiting to board the flight from LA to Guangzhou, CHINA! I met four guys on the same plane also on their way to orientation. One of them is placed at Guangxi University as well, and the others are in small towns a few hours outside of the city. We talked a little bit about previous teaching experience, knowledge of Mandarin, etc. before the plane began to board.
The airplane in general was about as comfortable as the one I took to Spain, with the added bonus of having an overhead light that turned OFF. They kept the main lights on until after they served and cleaned up dinner, then turned them off for the majority of the flight. I don’t know how typical this is on long flights, but China Southern has a personal TV on the back of each seat that displays flight progress on one of the channels. It would toggle between a map showing approximate location of the plane and statistics showing elevation level, outside temperature, speed, time of flight remaining, and the local time at both our destination and origin. It would show everything first in English, then go through the same information in ( Mandarin. )
I was in the window seat in a row of three, and the people who sat with me were both native Chinese, but both also spoke English very well. I talked at length with Chen Xiansheng (Mr. Chen) about his work in engineering power supply equipment, as well as the city he lives in near Guangzhou. Every once in a while Li Tian would chime into the conversation. Both invited me to come and visit them at some point during my time in China (this is a very normal cultural thing. If I took them up on this offer, they would bend over backward to accommodate me and ensure that I saw everything in a 50 mile radius that was slightly interesting). After a few hours of conversation, and the exchange of skype names, we all closed our eyes. I think that Chen Xiansheng was the only one to get sleep, however, as Li Tian appeared about as restless as I was.
Over the course of the flight my ankles seemed to swell to twice their size, and no amount of getting up, walking around and stretching would help them. Since keeping them elevated wasn’t an option at the time, I just tried to massage them a bit when possible.
Food on the flight was interesting. I ended up with orange chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables for dinner, and an omelete and potatoes for breakfast. As far as airplane food goes, both were decent. My breakfast looked much better than the porridge that is popular with most Chinese. I hope there are additional options in China, because the plain rice porridge is okay, but the kind that’s cooked with pork is not something that I enjoy.
As we were flying into Guangzhou airport, I attempted to take some pictures of the sunset, but they did not even come close to doing it justice. The sky turned itself into its own wide rainbow with a deep red at the bottom, fading to bright oranges and yellows, mixing into green where the blue overlapped before darkening again to indigo.
( A sad attempt at a picture. )
Getting off the plane at Guangzhou was a bit of a blur, but somehow I met up with Katie, yet another one of the other program participants, who had previously studied in Beijing. She and I claimed our luggage and made our way through Customs without incident, and then brought it to the transfer flight counter to have it re-checked for our flight to Nanning.
The line to go through security was massive, but luckily it moved fairly quickly. While in line, I noticed a little boy hitching a ride on his father’s suitcase, hugging an ( alligator stuffed animal. )
I kid you not, as the line moved the boy actually stayed on the suitcase and was dragged along. It was pretty adorable.
In order to get to the gate after security, we had to ride on a mini shuttle that drove through the airport. It was not a peak time, so the hallways were pretty clear, but the driver was still going faster than was really warranted. It felt a little bit like the boat ride in Willy Wonka.
An uneventful flight to Nanning later (the airport in Nanning is tiny. It reminded me of the airport in Valencia.) we arrived, gathered all group participants that arrived on that flight (about 12 of us) and made our way through the luggage claim over to where our group gathered at the airport.
Unfortunately, the bus was nearly full when we arrived as several of our flight times had changed significantly, so only a few of us left the airport immediately. The rest of us stayed around chatting with our guides (Ou Lei and Jesse).
At one point, an American couple asked us if we knew how far their hotel was from the airport and how much it was to take a taxi to get there. Ou Lei tried to help them, but the woman had a very poor attitude, and fought with her, saying that she must work for one of the cab companies and was trying to rip them off. Ou Lei was very nice about it regardless of how rude the woman was to her. It’s interesting that my first experience with discrimination in China was that of an American toward a Chinese.
We finally did begin our drive to the hotel. The bus was air conditioned, to the relief of many as it was in the mid-eighties and humid as heck. We had fun watching and attempting to decipher the signs as we drove past on our way to the hotel.
( Signs in Chinese because I am in China. )
As I looked around I finally had the feeling that I was actually in China. There were crazy people riding mopeds and bikes in the busy street without helmets, and with small children without helmets sitting in front or behind them. There was construction everywhere (the mark of a fast growing city that needs a lot of business and housing space) and street vendors on most corners. I knew that all of these things would be here, but seeing them in person sheds a new light on this world and culture that I’m here to learn about. It should be an interesting ten months.
I was well equipped with an MP4 player, a new camera, Lara bars, hand sanitizer, and cautions galore as my parents somewhat reluctantly saw me to the security gate at the airport. I made it through security without issue and continued onto what would be the first of four plane rides toward my destination in 南宁，广西，中国 (Nanning, Guangxi, China).
I flew in and out of Chicago without incident. The routine of the trip and the general atmosphere in O’Hare reminded me of all the reasons that I love travelling and why I had missed it so much. Airports are great places to watch things happen. I had Chicago pizza and chatted with Michael and Anna on the phone (I hope that you guys had fun in Michigan!) while I simultaneously watched a little girl completely fascinated with the airplanes run up and down the length of the gates describing each plane in detail to her tired mom.
The counter to check luggage for my flight to China opened an hour and a half after I arrived at the airport in LA. I spent the time hanging out with my ( buddies ) in the line, and studying the language that I will be using for the next ten months. Once relieved of my suitcases I went upstairs to the food court to buy ( dinner. )
The restaurants were limited, two high-end American restaurants (way too expensive), fast-food versions of Asian and Mexican cuisine, or McDonalds. In the end I went with a tuna roll and some edamame from the sushi bar. Perhaps it was a strange choice for my final meal in the US, but considering the options, I think I chose well.
While waiting to board the flight from LA to Guangzhou, CHINA! I met four guys on the same plane also on their way to orientation. One of them is placed at Guangxi University as well, and the others are in small towns a few hours outside of the city. We talked a little bit about previous teaching experience, knowledge of Mandarin, etc. before the plane began to board.
The airplane in general was about as comfortable as the one I took to Spain, with the added bonus of having an overhead light that turned OFF. They kept the main lights on until after they served and cleaned up dinner, then turned them off for the majority of the flight. I don’t know how typical this is on long flights, but China Southern has a personal TV on the back of each seat that displays flight progress on one of the channels. It would toggle between a map showing approximate location of the plane and statistics showing elevation level, outside temperature, speed, time of flight remaining, and the local time at both our destination and origin. It would show everything first in English, then go through the same information in ( Mandarin. )
I was in the window seat in a row of three, and the people who sat with me were both native Chinese, but both also spoke English very well. I talked at length with Chen Xiansheng (Mr. Chen) about his work in engineering power supply equipment, as well as the city he lives in near Guangzhou. Every once in a while Li Tian would chime into the conversation. Both invited me to come and visit them at some point during my time in China (this is a very normal cultural thing. If I took them up on this offer, they would bend over backward to accommodate me and ensure that I saw everything in a 50 mile radius that was slightly interesting). After a few hours of conversation, and the exchange of skype names, we all closed our eyes. I think that Chen Xiansheng was the only one to get sleep, however, as Li Tian appeared about as restless as I was.
Over the course of the flight my ankles seemed to swell to twice their size, and no amount of getting up, walking around and stretching would help them. Since keeping them elevated wasn’t an option at the time, I just tried to massage them a bit when possible.
Food on the flight was interesting. I ended up with orange chicken, rice, and steamed vegetables for dinner, and an omelete and potatoes for breakfast. As far as airplane food goes, both were decent. My breakfast looked much better than the porridge that is popular with most Chinese. I hope there are additional options in China, because the plain rice porridge is okay, but the kind that’s cooked with pork is not something that I enjoy.
As we were flying into Guangzhou airport, I attempted to take some pictures of the sunset, but they did not even come close to doing it justice. The sky turned itself into its own wide rainbow with a deep red at the bottom, fading to bright oranges and yellows, mixing into green where the blue overlapped before darkening again to indigo.
( A sad attempt at a picture. )
Getting off the plane at Guangzhou was a bit of a blur, but somehow I met up with Katie, yet another one of the other program participants, who had previously studied in Beijing. She and I claimed our luggage and made our way through Customs without incident, and then brought it to the transfer flight counter to have it re-checked for our flight to Nanning.
The line to go through security was massive, but luckily it moved fairly quickly. While in line, I noticed a little boy hitching a ride on his father’s suitcase, hugging an ( alligator stuffed animal. )
I kid you not, as the line moved the boy actually stayed on the suitcase and was dragged along. It was pretty adorable.
In order to get to the gate after security, we had to ride on a mini shuttle that drove through the airport. It was not a peak time, so the hallways were pretty clear, but the driver was still going faster than was really warranted. It felt a little bit like the boat ride in Willy Wonka.
An uneventful flight to Nanning later (the airport in Nanning is tiny. It reminded me of the airport in Valencia.) we arrived, gathered all group participants that arrived on that flight (about 12 of us) and made our way through the luggage claim over to where our group gathered at the airport.
Unfortunately, the bus was nearly full when we arrived as several of our flight times had changed significantly, so only a few of us left the airport immediately. The rest of us stayed around chatting with our guides (Ou Lei and Jesse).
At one point, an American couple asked us if we knew how far their hotel was from the airport and how much it was to take a taxi to get there. Ou Lei tried to help them, but the woman had a very poor attitude, and fought with her, saying that she must work for one of the cab companies and was trying to rip them off. Ou Lei was very nice about it regardless of how rude the woman was to her. It’s interesting that my first experience with discrimination in China was that of an American toward a Chinese.
We finally did begin our drive to the hotel. The bus was air conditioned, to the relief of many as it was in the mid-eighties and humid as heck. We had fun watching and attempting to decipher the signs as we drove past on our way to the hotel.
( Signs in Chinese because I am in China. )
As I looked around I finally had the feeling that I was actually in China. There were crazy people riding mopeds and bikes in the busy street without helmets, and with small children without helmets sitting in front or behind them. There was construction everywhere (the mark of a fast growing city that needs a lot of business and housing space) and street vendors on most corners. I knew that all of these things would be here, but seeing them in person sheds a new light on this world and culture that I’m here to learn about. It should be an interesting ten months.
