Day one. We arrived at the airport at 4:15am. We are excited to be heading to China. Today’s blog topics will be long flights, the maglev and Shanghai traffic.
Abby- It’s been an early morning so far but after a few bumps we are inside the airport waiting for Starbucks to open. I’m not too excited for the long flight but I am very much looking forward to the maglev train. Today will be an experience. At the end of the day, we will finally be in CHINA!!!!!
Ally – I’m very tired, so I’m ready to get on the plane and take a nap. I’ve been on a long flight before, and I’m looking forward to watching movies and reading my ethnography for class. Once we arrive in Shanghai, we’ll get to have our first dinner in China. It still seems unreal that we’re actually on our way.
finally embarking on our journey! This trip will be able to provide us with a wealth of knowledge about different cultures and experiences that will have a positive impact on our lives for years to come.
Vivian—Oh my, I am on the way to my hometown again. Exciting, but also I’m wondering how can I show the charming Shanghai to everyone! I can’t wait to see my parents!
Léna – I share in the group’s feelings of exhaustion and the surreal fact that we’re on our way, but I’m mostly just excited. I’m excited about the trip, excited to be united with our Chinese friends and make new ones, and excited about this group, which somehow already has funny stories to tell when we haven’t even left Tulsa yet. Chinese word of the day: Shi qi = seventeen, as in the number of hours on a plane between us and a totally awesome adventure.
Dr. Ehlers-OK, the bumps Abby is referring to are with me. I had an exciting morning at the Tulsa airport. It appears that the new screening machine at the gate does NOT like “money belts” on the body. Since I have been given the task of protecting our emergency cash on the trip, I decided that the best bet would be to keep it on my body at all times. Since the cash and the belt have no metal parts, I figured I was safe to pass through. This thought process was flawed and so the lesson for the day is as follows: do NOT go through the new airport screening machine with a money belt unless you want to take a trip to the “private room” with two TSA agents for a strip search. Can’t wait for lesson two!
Lee- I wanted to tell our readers that I have never blogged before. For sensitive readers or regular bloggers, I will offer my apologies now in order to save time later.
This is so much fun to read, everyone! Thanks for sharing. Dr. Bird--glad you gave the pre-warning to the readers as I do think this will save some time. ;)
ReplyDeleteI miss you all!
Love the pictures!
Tawny