Missed Connection and Low Prices

Monday Morning - For those of you back in the States right now, it's Sunday night and you're probably watching the Super Bowl. Me? It's 7:30am here. I just woke up, and I have a three-hour language placement exam at 8. Fortunately, the classrooms are one floor above my room (which I'm sure will come in handy as the semester goes on). Anyway, let take a step back.

Thursday night (the night before my flight), I decided it would be a great idea to stay up all night so that I could sleep on the plane and be in tip-top shape when I got to Beijing, hopefully avoiding too large a stint of jet-lag. This may have worked perfectly, had it not been for the fact that at 4:30am (I had intended to leave for the airport at 6), I checked the status of my flight to find that my first flight to Washington D.C. had been delayed long enough to cause a "MISSED CONNECTION". After thirty minutes trying to get through to the airline on the phone (a feat which I eventually abandoned), we headed off to the airport, hoping that they'd be able to help me out when I got there. I don't know if you've flown recently, but the new thing at the check-in for all of the airlines is this DIY check-in, like the DIY check-out at the grocery stores. I love computers, but personally I don't want to check myself out at the grocery store, let alone check myself in at the airport. There's just something about dealing with an actual human being. Anyway, I wanted to try to change my flight, so I waited in the line for the only human check-in counter. They confirmed that I was going to miss my flight to China. Fortunately, they were able to stick me on an earlier flight to Chicago with a flight from Chicago to Beijing just a little bit later. I should mention that the weather in Philadelphia at the time was miserable, and the weather in Chicago was much worse. Anyway, I got through security and my flight to Chicago ended up being delayed another two-hours. Lucky for me, the flight out of Chicago to Beijing was also being delayed due to the same weather. So, when it all came down to it, I got to Chicago just in time to get onto my flight to Beijing. The pilot said, as we were landing in Chicago, that the two flights that were scheduled to leave Philadelphia after us had been canceled.

The good news about flying out of Chicago instead of Washington D.C. is that it cut an hour off of the flight time, bringing the trip down to 12 hours. Also, somehow I ended up with an aisle seat with an empty seat next to me. I guess I really lucked out. As for the sleep, I managed to get a few hours in at one point, though as soon as I did, they began duty free shopping right behind my seat (which evidently seems to be a big thing with the Chinese).  Someone had asked me before I left if the plane flies over the Pacific or Atlantic ocean. The answer is neither. The plane actually flies up north through Canada over the Arctic Ocean and then down into Asia through Siberia and Mongolia. Some flights (particularly those leaving out of Newark) to China even travel extremely close to the North Pole. While it was fairly dark over the Arctic Ocean, the views of Siberia and Mongolia were amazing.

Landing in Beijing, the first thing that I noticed was the effect of the pollution. Despite the fact that it was a bright sunny day outside of the city, the Beijing skyline seemed to drown in the haze. Still, since I've been here, the air has been fairly good. (This is due in part to the fact of the approaching Chun Jie [Chinese New Year] or Spring Festival). As the festival approaches, many businesses (including factories) stay closed. (This is also the reason why there has been so much turmoil over the transportation through the snow storms in Souther China). At night there are continual outbursts of fireworks, though I rarely actually see them in the air, only hear their whistles and pops sporadically in the dark. We will be celebrating Chun Jie with Chinese families setting off fireworks and doing other traditional celebrations. I really can't wait to see what it is like.

One of the other most striking things about China is how cheap things really are. While there has been a lot of inflation of food items over the past few months, the value of the Renminbi (the Chinese currency, aka Yuan) in relation to other currencies (even considering the present situation of the US economy) is minute. As a result, things are a lot cheaper. It cost me 150 yuan (~$21) to get a SIM card with a fair amount of time on it to put in a cell phone. We went out last night to a store and bought 18 bottles of 600 ml (almost twice the size of a normal beer bottle) Tsingtao beer for a total of 45 yuan. That comes out to roughly $0.36 per bottle. The food has been amazingly inexpensive also. The other day for breakfast I had a Jian Bing from a street vendor, which is made sort of like a crepe with a flour wrap, with Egg, green onions, cilantro, and spicy chili sauce. This cost me 2.5 yuan ($0.36)--cheaper than a Philadelphia soft pretzel.

I guess my plan of staying up last Thursday night did work in the end, since I really haven't had any jet-lag.  I have so much to share, but I don't want to right a novel every time I make a post, and my time is really restricted.  I haven't seen much of the city yet, as they've been keeping us extraordinarily busy with orientation events and activities. They do, however, have a number of tours around the city planned for us towards the end of the week.  So, check back soon for photos and another post!