Today's travel tip:
Always take a clean pair of underwear in your carry-on bag. You may not get stranded, but if you do it's a godsend.
No, this trip I did not get stranded, but it's helpful advice nonetheless. I arrived in Beijing with not much excitement, save me almost throttling the Scottish guy at the NWA desk in Minneapolis. He was the same guy who said that he had rebooked our Ireland reservation, and after arriving to Amsterdam, we had no flight. However, restraint prevailed.
Beijing is a very interesting city. As was pointed out today to me, there is a lovely greenspace and a chaotic street system in the inner part and on the outside is modern city. I got to see this strange juxtapositioning and found it fascinating.
I am staying with my friend Aleen, with whom I traveled in Europe in 2001. Aleen, her friend Howie, and I visited Tiananmen (Gate of Heavenly Peace), Mao's mausoleum, the Forbidden City, and Jingshan Park today. It was all very overestimation to see all of that at once and on my first day, but I do like to hit the ground running. I had several Chinese people come up to me and take my picture to which I obliged. Boy are they in for a surprise when they get those pictures back. My hair looked very wind blown.
The rest of my group arrives tomorrow night and I will have a bit of fun with them as they will be quite jet lagged. Nothing says annoying like a gunho travel companion. I'm now 13 hours ahead of the Central time zone, so I know what your in for at 11pm tonight. It's just better if I don't tell you. I hate ruining surprises.
Zai Jian!
Shanna
5 comments:
Hi Shanna,
Glad to hear you made it safe and had a great first day. Grandma happened to open a magazine right to a page with a map of China and we checked out Beijing. GF Herald said it was in the 60's there. Figured you would be at least 12 hours ahead of us. Any way we could get the winning lottery numbers and send them "back in time" to you? Puzzle that one out.
Love
Mom and Dad
Well, you spoiled brat, I hope you're having fun galavanting around the world while I'm back here working two jobs! grumble...grumble...anyways, glad you made it over with not too many hassles because I had a dream that said differently. I was in a gas station somewhere and, all of a sudden, you showed up. I was a bit confused because it was the day you were supposed to leave, but you were pretty upset. Turns out, you had left your passport in the glovebox of your car and couldn't go to China. Then I think some number of other random stuff happened, but I can never remember most of my dreams. So my tip of the day is never put your passport in your glovebox and Erin says, "Don't eat rotten Spaghetti-O's."
Have fun in your travels. Let me know if you happen to try turtle soup. When I was in China we took a river boat cruise. The cook snagged a turtle out of the river- and a few hours later we had turtle soup. Interesting flavor.
Aunt Karen
Shanna!
China, huh? I love asian culture and can't wait to get there myself. I might be in Shanghai sometime this Fall, so if you by chance get there, I will have to get some travel advice from you. I really miss you and hope to see you sometime in the near future When I think about ECHT. I always have this vision of you wearing a t-shirt that said "twist of fate" lol. I think it was a wrestling shirt? Anyway, best of luck and I'll be checking this site often to see how you're doing...SO UPDATE IT!!!!!
Love,
Erik
Hey Shanna!
What fun to hear about where you've been (so far)!! I can't believe all the stuff you saw your first day touring. Hard for us oldtimers to imagine......How do you process all of those experiences??? Anyway...Take lots of pictures for us. Can't wait to see you in August.
Love, Mary and TBone
Zai Jian!
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