China Day 0- May 8th

Our trip started by leaving for the Omaha airport at 6:30am. When we got to the airport we checked our bags and went through security- it has gotten a lot more strict since the last time I flew! The cafe that was through security had a sign that said "Bin Laden Special- Two Shots and a Splash of Water- $9.11," which I didn't realize until I looked at the picture again later what it really meant. There ended up being a maintenance problem with the plane (the air conditioning was not working) and so we had a 45 minute delay before the plane took off- I am very glad they deboarded the plane and did not make us wait on it. I found out that one man on our flight and his wife were headed to Alaska to hunt for a certain kind of black bears, and that not only do they use them for trophy, but they also eat the meat! He said it tastes similar to lamb. After a 2 hour flight we arrived in Detroit and headed for our flight to Tokyo. The Detroit airport had a really neat walkway with lights from floor to ceiling- it looks much more impressive in person than it does in the pictures! Because our plane had arrived late into Detroit, we didn't have to wait long before we boarded the 13 hour flight to Tokyo. They checked our passports and visas both as we went through the gate to head towards the plane, and again before we got onto the plane. The Boeing 747 is HUGE. I have never seen a plane so large. Not only does it have two levels, but it also seats 10 people across (3-4-3). I'm not used to being served meals on flights- but on this one we got two snacks and two meals, and the flight attendants were very nice. The first meal I had was a mango barbeque chicken, and the second meal was a breakfast-like one with eggs, sausage, and potatoes (probably to be the last "American" meal before I arrived in China!) It was also neat to hear the flight instructions being read in several different languages, since it was an international flight. Neither person on either side of me seemed interested in having a conversation, so I got to talk to myself for 13 hours but it also gave me a good opportunity to think about the trip ahead and what I was going to experience in China. I also tried to do some sleeping on the plane. When we arrived in Tokyo we had to go through security again, although it was not as strict as I would have expected for an international airport, and there were many foreigners there. The airport had a vending machine close to where we waited for our plane, and it was interesting to see the different drinks they had from the US, and also the labels in Japanese rather than English on the familiar drinks. We had a few minutes before we had to board the plane, so we went to a duty-free shop that was nearby, where I bought some lemon candy an a keychain. While most of the people who tried it did not like the candy I bought, I thought it was very good because it had a sour lemon taste- similar to a Lemonhead, only chewy. Our 3 hour flight from Tokyo to Shanghai was another Boeing 747, but this time I was sitting by someone I knew. It was dark by the time we left Tokyo- it seems to get darker much earlier than in Nebraska in the summer. I slept most of this flight, and even so much that I missed the meal that was served (oops!), but it was nice to get some rest after traveling for so long. Before we got off the plane we spoke to the people sitting next to us. One gentleman was from Detroit and said he was working for an automobile company doing marketing, and the other gentleman was from Utah and said that he worked selling treadmills- both had traveled all over the world for their jobs, showing just how global our job environment is becoming. Before we arrived in China we had to fill out customs forms on the plane, with information such as our name, passport and visa numbers, and purpose of our trip. Inside the airport we went through another customs check, where they took the ticket we had filed out, and also compared our passport and boarding pass, and some people were verbally asked the purpose of our trip. We were then able to get our baggage- I guess we were standing on the wrong side because we had to wait until they came all the way around (lesson learned: do as you see everyone else doing)- and meet the rest of the group who was waiting for us at the airport. It was nice to be so warmly welcomed by the Chinese students who had already arrived. We then loaded our belongings into a bus and took a 3 hour bus ride to Hangzhou, where we will stay for the next two weeks. The only semi-scary part of the ride was when we were pulled over past one of the checkpoints- other semis and trucks were stopped too and I think they just wanted to check and make sure were weren't carrying anything that we shouldn't be, but we were allowed to continue on. Even though we didn't get to the hotel until 1am, there were ZUCC students kindly waiting there to welcome us and give us our room keys so that we didn't have to go through the check-in process, since they knew we would be tired. It was greatly appreciated! The hotel seems nice, and it is only a 5 minute walk to the ZUCC campus, so very convenient. I am in a room alone right now because Xin will not be here until the 14th, which is nice because I don't have to worry about waking anyone up, but it will also be nice to have someone to talk to!