Journey to the other side of the world

...via the North Pole. Yes, that's right, I flew over it on the 'short' route to China. Very white and icy, from what I could see but otherwise unremarkable, kind of like my flight. I sat next to a very nice older woman from New Jersey who had traveled the world and had great stories to tell. I also learned how to say 'not spicy' in Chinese (very useful for me with my acid reflux) -- it sounds like 'blah blah' while moving your hands in front of you. I hope this will work, we'll see. After 16 hours in the air, I finally landed at the Beijing Intl. Airport where I got my luggage and met up with Andrea, a fellow Purdue volunteer who was on my flight. We had an interesting few hours as we waited patiently for two others to arrive on different flights (which happened to be in a different terminal). Long story short, we refused to give up on them, and luckily found them and took a cab to the CUC (Communications University of China) where we will be staying for the duration of our time here. While in the cab, I remembered something that has come to mind each and every time I have traveled in a vehicle abroad: I am SO glad I will never have to drive here. Vehicles coming towards you, turning in front of you with no apparent warning, as well as people walking in front of the vehicles, not to mention a myriad of bicyclists all over the roads. We arrived safely and went to a restaurant, where we had the experience of ordering our first meal (no pictures, just Chinese symbols). We actually lucked out and got some small chicken wings on a stick, covered in an interesting glaze that made your mouth tingle. Very interesting. I went to bed and woke up at 1 a.m. (Beijing time) ready to start my day... Hopefully I'll have this jetlag thing out of my system soon.

The bed is as hard as a board, but our room is decent sized--- actually bigger than some of the dorms at Purdue. Val and I have great plans to decorate, which will be very fun. We have air conditioning, too, a welcome break from the 90 degree air outside.

I'm tired... more to come tomorrow. Goodnight!