First and foremost, I must apologize for my absence.
We didn't know that China banned Blogger. And Youtube. And a bunch of other sites.
But I'm here now! In TAIWAN. So I'm finally able to blog about what I have experienced.
These posts will sum up what I have encountered this past week. There are a lot of things, some sad and some happy, things that travel just throws at you at the curb.
So this is what happened when we woke up at 4:00 a.m, on December 11th:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't want to get up. I really didn't.
I slugged out of bed. All the things were downstairs, and I had already slipped on my vest and jacket.
It took us like AN HOUR to leave. Seriously. Everytime we have to go somewhere, it always takes us at least an hour. I don't know why. For this context, we had basically forgot to leave stuff and had to go back and get them. We also had to pack them in the back of our little minivan. My dad's friend offered to drive our car back when we left to check-in.
As stated before, I did not like planes. EVER. I never enjoyed them, from the fact that we were in the air and my ears hurt everytime we landed. Those same fears came back to me when we rode on the highway to the airport.
Check-in took a long time. Our flight left at 9, but we had to get up really early to get the bassinet for our brother, so that he could lay flat when he slept.
After check-in, we were shoved through security. That also took forever. They stripped me of accessories and stuffed them in boxes, and scanned them through the machine.
Bleh. I hate describing such little events.
We got to the subway for our gates. We were stopping at E, and by the time D stopped, we were alone.
"E is for international flights", my dad explained.
Our gate was E17. Fast forward a bit and you can check out my dad argueing with the flight attendant, thirty minutes before we boarded, for the bassinet.
We boarded the plane at 8:50. I mean, this plane was HUMONGOUS. Gigantic Delta plane, I had to admit. First-class got like these swirly chairs, while we got the standard ones. Bleh first-class.
I disliked the flight attendants. They were mean and snappy, but I could tell they were trying to be humorous, with jokes like, "Make sure those suitcases are stored over your heads or they could fall out! *laughs*".
I liked one, though. She was Chinese and nice, just a little younger than the other snappy ones. She even learned my name through the conversations I had with my mom.
The plane ride was 15 hours long. Our route?
LEAVE ATLANTA
GO THROUGH CANADA
WHOOSH THROUGH NORTH POLE
SLOWLY FLY OVER RUSSIA
FLY OVER MONGOLIA.
FINALLY REACH CHINA
LAND IN SHANGHAI
There were these TVs on the very front (where my parents and I were at; my sisters sat in the very back), that you could pull out from under your armrest. I watched a bunch of Simpsons and Family Guy, and an episode of Raising Hope, and watched some South Park also. The rest of the time involved kind of sleeping ( I didn't really sleep), using the restrooms (fear! These toilets were loud and fast!), holding my brother, using the restrooms...
When we finally landed, I was like, "Heck, yeah, we were in China!"
A bunch of Chinese flight attendants greeted us on our way out. That hallway we took to go to the actual airport? Extremely long and tiring.
I never actually had the need to speak Chinese back in the U.S. The only time we did, really, was to say something secret within our family. Now, we used English for that, which was pretty weird.
And now, watching a bunch of security guards pass us, talking in some rapid Chinese, I was a little bit amused. Especially in airports.
Baggage claim was fast. With our trollies, we sped through a path, carved out by a bunch of people surrounding us, holding up signs with their names typed out in bold. Minutes later, I was explained by my mom that these people were coming to pick people up.
"Strangers?" I asked.
"Yeah. They pay people."
I was tiring. This load of luggage on my trolley seemed heavier every second. I pleaded for help from my sisters. They refused.
Then suddenly, as if hope had swooped down, my relatives came in, taking the trollies from us. My father introduced them, one by one:
"This is my fourth brother".
"This is my second sister."
"And this is my aunt."
For the record, my father has four brothers and three sisters. So my deceased grandparents had eight children. A bunch, if you ask me.
Everything ran smoothed until we ran into the escalator going down to the second parking lot level that we needed to get to. So my father came up with a plan:
"Let's push them down!"
I didn't understand what he meant until he unloaded a trolley, positioned a quite heavy suitcase in front of the escalator, and gave it a good push.
I screamed and dodged out of the way as the suitcase bounded down the escalator and landed with a heavy thump on the ground. My father and uncle did this for the rest of the 10 freaking suitcases.
Once everything was loaded into their small cars, we were squeezed with our family into my aunt's car. I might have fell asleep. I didn't remember, but I knew I woke up again, and we weren't even there yet.
It was pitch-black dark (well, its never really black in Shanghai, cause of all the light pollution) when we arrived at their apartments. The stairs to go up their were tiring. 9 flights. I was panting when we finally reached there. Imagine my uncle and father and Chloe going up these stairs with the fifty-pound suitcases. Ugh.
They had a really NICE apartment. It was all modern, the floors marble and the walls white. There was an awesome swirly staircase that led to like, four more bedrooms. Our great aunt gave us food, but I declined because I was just so tired. I'm gonna have some sleeping problems for the next few days, as when we crossed over the North Pole, it didn't even get dark. It just got light again on the other side of the world.
I slipped into bed, not to wake up again until 5:00 a.m.
My first night in China? Okay. But it had just begun.
-----------------------------------------
We didn't know that China banned Blogger. And Youtube. And a bunch of other sites.
But I'm here now! In TAIWAN. So I'm finally able to blog about what I have experienced.
These posts will sum up what I have encountered this past week. There are a lot of things, some sad and some happy, things that travel just throws at you at the curb.
So this is what happened when we woke up at 4:00 a.m, on December 11th:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't want to get up. I really didn't.
I slugged out of bed. All the things were downstairs, and I had already slipped on my vest and jacket.
It took us like AN HOUR to leave. Seriously. Everytime we have to go somewhere, it always takes us at least an hour. I don't know why. For this context, we had basically forgot to leave stuff and had to go back and get them. We also had to pack them in the back of our little minivan. My dad's friend offered to drive our car back when we left to check-in.
As stated before, I did not like planes. EVER. I never enjoyed them, from the fact that we were in the air and my ears hurt everytime we landed. Those same fears came back to me when we rode on the highway to the airport.
Check-in took a long time. Our flight left at 9, but we had to get up really early to get the bassinet for our brother, so that he could lay flat when he slept.
After check-in, we were shoved through security. That also took forever. They stripped me of accessories and stuffed them in boxes, and scanned them through the machine.
Bleh. I hate describing such little events.
We got to the subway for our gates. We were stopping at E, and by the time D stopped, we were alone.
"E is for international flights", my dad explained.
Our gate was E17. Fast forward a bit and you can check out my dad argueing with the flight attendant, thirty minutes before we boarded, for the bassinet.
We boarded the plane at 8:50. I mean, this plane was HUMONGOUS. Gigantic Delta plane, I had to admit. First-class got like these swirly chairs, while we got the standard ones. Bleh first-class.
I disliked the flight attendants. They were mean and snappy, but I could tell they were trying to be humorous, with jokes like, "Make sure those suitcases are stored over your heads or they could fall out! *laughs*".
I liked one, though. She was Chinese and nice, just a little younger than the other snappy ones. She even learned my name through the conversations I had with my mom.
The plane ride was 15 hours long. Our route?
LEAVE ATLANTA
GO THROUGH CANADA
WHOOSH THROUGH NORTH POLE
SLOWLY FLY OVER RUSSIA
FLY OVER MONGOLIA.
FINALLY REACH CHINA
LAND IN SHANGHAI
There were these TVs on the very front (where my parents and I were at; my sisters sat in the very back), that you could pull out from under your armrest. I watched a bunch of Simpsons and Family Guy, and an episode of Raising Hope, and watched some South Park also. The rest of the time involved kind of sleeping ( I didn't really sleep), using the restrooms (fear! These toilets were loud and fast!), holding my brother, using the restrooms...
When we finally landed, I was like, "Heck, yeah, we were in China!"
A bunch of Chinese flight attendants greeted us on our way out. That hallway we took to go to the actual airport? Extremely long and tiring.
I never actually had the need to speak Chinese back in the U.S. The only time we did, really, was to say something secret within our family. Now, we used English for that, which was pretty weird.
And now, watching a bunch of security guards pass us, talking in some rapid Chinese, I was a little bit amused. Especially in airports.
Baggage claim was fast. With our trollies, we sped through a path, carved out by a bunch of people surrounding us, holding up signs with their names typed out in bold. Minutes later, I was explained by my mom that these people were coming to pick people up.
"Strangers?" I asked.
"Yeah. They pay people."
I was tiring. This load of luggage on my trolley seemed heavier every second. I pleaded for help from my sisters. They refused.
Then suddenly, as if hope had swooped down, my relatives came in, taking the trollies from us. My father introduced them, one by one:
"This is my fourth brother".
"This is my second sister."
"And this is my aunt."
For the record, my father has four brothers and three sisters. So my deceased grandparents had eight children. A bunch, if you ask me.
Everything ran smoothed until we ran into the escalator going down to the second parking lot level that we needed to get to. So my father came up with a plan:
"Let's push them down!"
I didn't understand what he meant until he unloaded a trolley, positioned a quite heavy suitcase in front of the escalator, and gave it a good push.
I screamed and dodged out of the way as the suitcase bounded down the escalator and landed with a heavy thump on the ground. My father and uncle did this for the rest of the 10 freaking suitcases.
Once everything was loaded into their small cars, we were squeezed with our family into my aunt's car. I might have fell asleep. I didn't remember, but I knew I woke up again, and we weren't even there yet.
It was pitch-black dark (well, its never really black in Shanghai, cause of all the light pollution) when we arrived at their apartments. The stairs to go up their were tiring. 9 flights. I was panting when we finally reached there. Imagine my uncle and father and Chloe going up these stairs with the fifty-pound suitcases. Ugh.
They had a really NICE apartment. It was all modern, the floors marble and the walls white. There was an awesome swirly staircase that led to like, four more bedrooms. Our great aunt gave us food, but I declined because I was just so tired. I'm gonna have some sleeping problems for the next few days, as when we crossed over the North Pole, it didn't even get dark. It just got light again on the other side of the world.
I slipped into bed, not to wake up again until 5:00 a.m.
My first night in China? Okay. But it had just begun.
-----------------------------------------
This is going to be awesome. This is going to be so awesome.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to like post more thingies that you wrote daily or something.... This is awesome.
I can't believe that suitcase thing! :) My parents would never do that....
You went over the north pole????
ReplyDeleteDid you look down?
I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU DID NOT LOOK DOWN. You must have looked down. It was THE NORTH POLE!
Did you see oceans? How about icecaps? Did you see a bunch of snow? Or evergreen trees? Which would be taiga.
DID YOU SEE PENGUINS???
No, of course you didn't, that's south pole.
Did you see polar bears?
Did you see whales?
HAHAHA ALEX WAS ON THE NORTH POLE WOOP
Clarissa. The North Pole would not have trees because it is
ReplyDeletea) a giant lake half the year
b) ice the other half
Meaning no evergreen trees. Or lichens. Or anything found in either the tundra or taiga.
Um... Julia?
ReplyDeleteI will now DIRECTLY QUOTE my post.
" Or evergreen trees? Which would be taiga. "
As in a taiga.
And NOT the North Pole.
I'm assuming that she must have gone over evergreen trees at some point since they went north straight through canada. I'm pretty sure Canada includes Taiga.
Er, we were above the clouds most of the time.
ReplyDeleteBut we did see big chunks of ice. The water was a pretty blue.
Clarissa, what I meant by saying that was even if the North Pole was taiga, it would not have trees. Basically, I was thinking that you should come to the conclusion that "Oh, there can't be trees - because the North Pole is a LAKE". Rather than ignoring your disclaimer.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I said either tundra or taiga, pointing out that I had recognized you correction. Thus the lichens part.
My point is that IT'S A LAKE. Duh.
Yes.
ReplyDeleteBut canada... IS NOT A LAKE
Here's what I MEANT:
"Did you see [stuff maybe at north pole]? Or how about evergreen trees? Like, in the taiga. Because the north pole is not taiga. It's either ice or a lake. But you probably went over taiga."
Maybe that's not clear. But it's WHAT I MEANT.
I flew over the north pole once...I did look down, but I only saw clouds.
ReplyDelete