Soy-long Idaho, shangHI China!

On February 20, I said goodbye Idaho and embarked on an adventure to teach in China for one year. Let me take you back to the beginning.

PACKING. Along with the necessities of clothes, shoes, and toiletries, I had to bring teaching supplies and gifts (customary to give in certain situations), which took up a lot of space. After many modifications to the clothes pile in particular, I ended up with ONLY a large travel backpack, duffel bag, and small carry-on backpack.


At the airport, Tim walked me in to say goodbye (at least until summer). I told him I wanted to carry all of my luggage so that I got some practice handling everything. During the walk, we received many strange looks to the effect of, 'What a jerk, making that poor girl carry all those bags.' Little did they know, he would have helped in a heartbeat had I wanted it!

AIR TRAVEL. Air travel always seems to be somewhat hard these days, but I must admit I was lucky to make all four flights that I had. Following a 2 1/2 drive to Salt Lake City, I flew to Denver and then onto San Francisco for an overnight layover. I thought I had a relatively descent hotel booked, but I found out through personal experience that the Travelodge 'hosts' birthday parties. Honestly, who the hell would have a birthday party at the Travelodge? This so-called birthday party sounded like a Rave and following what seemed like hours of head-banging music and flashing lights, I was almost asleep when a group of guys literally threatening to do someone in were screaming outside my room. I could only lay there thinking, don't move and keep the lights off! That incident didn't make me overly comfortable about getting up at 4 am and taking a short walk outside in the dark to catch the airport shuttle. I talked to Tim for the duration of the walk telling him that if he heard me scream to call the police, but I am sorry to report (for excitement's sake)...no such thing happened. I arrived at the SFO airport around 5 am, flew to Vancouver, and then to Shanghai.

On the flight to Shanghai, I sat next to two Chinese men. One man spoke English quite well, the other none. I was given many compliments by them such as:
*'How old are you? I would guess 19!' YIPPEE!
*'You look pretty.' Mind you, I had been up almost all night. I think this might have been a lie.
*'You have such a good personality, your students will love you.'
*'I am impressed with how many words you know in Chinese.' Holy cow, Rossetta Stone really works!
*Looking through Sky Mall magazine, the man with no ability to speak English pointed to a heart necklace and expensive chocolates and then pointed to me saying, 'for you!'
*Following my nap I heard this statement,'I took a picture of you when you were sleeping!' Yes, creepy if done by an American, but endearing when done by the Chinese, right?

How many more compliments could a girl ask for in one day? At one point I was thinking, I am going to love China if I keep receiving compliments at this rate. On a more serious note however, it felt so good to have a connection with these people in such a short amount of time. Knowing that I could possibly make a difference in their lives is so exciting, and I know they are already making a difference in mine.


Continuing with the flight, we arrived in Shanghai at 4:20 pm but could not land at the intended airport due to fog. We ended up at a smaller airport, having to 'park' just off the runway. Figuring, the fog would roll out, the captain relayed they would re-fuel the plane and then fly us to the correct airport. OF COURSE, that did not happen. Once the fog rolled out the flight crew could no longer fly the aircraft due to their time limit of flying expiring, and the airport we were at refused to let us off the plane to go through 'their' customs. After 5 hours of sitting on plane at the airport, they finally let us off, and surprisingly enough allowed us to go through customs after saying there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that could possibly be done. WHAT?! Following some lost luggage problems (an additional 2 hours) and a 30 minute wait for a taxi, I finally made it to the Faculty Club at around 1 am.


What a crazy start- so memorable!