Tyann Porche, Pensacola, FL
August 3-6, 2008

There was no distinction between the first two days of our trip.  We left about 10 minutes late on Sunday from the WKU Campbell Lane parking lot, which as it turns out, was a clue as to how most of the trip has gone so far.  We arrived at the Nashville airport to find that they had cancelled our flight to Chicago!  So, Dr. Gibson worked with the American Airlines people to find us a flight while Dr. Lyons handed out our awesome new WKU Beijing 2008 wind suits.  Thankfully, it didn’t take too long to get a flight re-routed to Nashville to come pick us up.  However, nobody knew when it would arrive!  We all rushed to get breakfast, and then they announced that our plane had arrived.  The ride to Chicago was short and did not at all prepare us for the upcoming 14 hour flight to Shanghai.  This is where things start to get fuzzy.

We went straight from the Nashville flight to the Shanghai flight because they were holding the plane for us.  The only thing I could think about was that if we only had 15 minutes to run to the plane, how would our baggage make it?!  We all got on the plane and heard our first Chinese words spoken over the loud speaker.  I had already taken my Dramamine and was ready to go!  We taxied out to our runway, then we heard the pilot say something about a fan dysfunction that cooled some instruments (I assume they were important).  So we had to go all the way back to find out what was wrong and either fix it or disable it.  We ended up being there at the airport for about 2 hours waiting in the plane.  I don’t really remember too much of it since my Dramamine had kicked in high gear, and I was sleeping through it!  When we finally got off of the ground, I know we all struggled to get comfortable in the tight quarters.  It was definitely the longest trip I’ve made and definitely not the most relaxed I’ve ever been.  But we made it to Shanghai…about 3 hours late!

Once at the airport, now day 2 of our trip (kind of), we went on a wild goose chase looking for our bus that was supposed to take us to our hotel in Shanghai.  We made a good 1.5 laps around the airport until we found him – and it was definitely too hot for that!  The bus ride was our first of many, and our first experience with insane Chinese traffic and the complete non-existence of traffic laws!  But, we had it to the hotel in one piece…about 4 hours later than expected.  We got everybody checked-in, settled into rooms, and immediately had dinner – our first real Chinese dinner.  And no, it’s nothing like the American Chinese food!  It’s very different, but much better!

On day 3, we had breakfast early, and then boarded the bus to go see Zhouzhang, an ancient Chinese city surrounded by rivers and canals.  On the way, I noticed that there are probably just as many bikes and mopeds on the roads as there are cars.  We got to Zhouzhang and found an English speaking tour guide (thanks Jenny!), and made our way into the city.  It was so beautiful!  Inside the ancient houses, there were all kinds of artwork and old furniture.  Our guide pointed out things about certain rooms, like how there was this one small opening on the second floor where the women could look out onto the first floor and pick out their men!  The heat was pretty ridiculous, but we all managed to get through it and enjoy the tour.  We had lunch at a restaurant in the city, then got some free time to shop!  Then it was back to the hotel.  On the way, some people had talked about maybe getting tickets to see the US Basketball team play, since there was a game in Shanghai that night.  The cost was a little too high for me, so I was unable to go.  But I’m told the game was fun, but that there was no food (other than popcorn), and that Dr. Lyons slept through about 2/3 of it!  Instead of going to the game, I stayed in the hotel with grand hopes of getting out into Shanghai and seeing some neat stuff.  I think I must have fallen asleep around 6pm, and I didn’t wake up until 11:15pm!  I missed dinner and going out, but so did my roommate.  I think we probably really needed the sleep.

On day 4, the 6th, we left the Shanghai hotel for the Railway Station.  I was really excited because I had never been on a train before.  The train station was huge and it was packed with people!  We saw some really interesting things on the way to our waiting area.  There are definitely some major cultural differences between us when it comes to using the toilet – both in and out of the bathroom!  While waiting, I got my first chance to try the Chinese version of KFC.  The menu looked almost the same, but the food was a little different.  I would not recommend the mashed potatoes, even though I love them in the U.S.!

We boarded the train as quickly as possible and managed to stuff all of our luggage on there, even though most of us did not pack as light as we were probably supposed to.  The train ride was 10 hours long, and it felt like it.  The scenery was really pretty though.  I sampled the train food, which I know some others were wary about.  It was called the “lunchbox,” and it was a random assortment of things like rice, egg, chicken and cabbage, potatoes, and a drumstick of some sort.  I ate almost all of it, except the drumstick.  I thought maybe I shouldn’t chance that one.
After about a 5 hour nap, we arrived in Beijing to an enormous train station with amazing architecture and light everywhere!  We gathered our luggage, walked to our bus, and headed to our Beijing Hotel.  On the way, we learned about the even-odd system for driving during the Olympics.  On certain days, on cars with certain numbers can drive – yesterday was an even day.  So if the last digit of your license plate was an even number, you were allowed to drive.  I thought that that would never fly in America, but appreciated what they were trying to do here by limiting traffic and reducing air pollution.

We got to the Beijing Hotel pretty late, handed out room keys, and immediately had dinner.  The food at Master Inn was much better than at XinMin Hotel.  I again had hopes of going out to see the city, but got caught up doing website stuff.  I definitely went to bed too late, and will probably have a hard time getting up in the morning!  But I am definitely going out into Beijing tomorrow night after dinner for some sight-seeing and some shopping with my roommate!