I Have Arrived
Hi everybody!
I got to Beijing safe and sound, slightly sea(air)sick as I was sitting in the very rear of a very large 747. It was an aisle seat (good) but I felt every shimmy of the fuselage as the plane made its way to earth and was buffeted by some turbulence. Right now it is 6:15pm on 6/15 (hey! How about that!) I’ve had dinner – or breakfast (have been up 24 hrs I think) – it was very yummy and I am recalling the highlights of the day.
I arrived in D.C. late and had to pull an OJ Simpson- remember him? (no, I didn’t get away with murder) and raced (not at all gracefully) with my knapsack and laptop flapping against me, to the gate and down the ramp to the plane. I slowed then and walked into what felt like a cruise ship. 747’s are HUGE! They play nice relaxing music preflight to keep everyone calm but when I turned the corner I was met with a sea of smiling, chatting, very lively, beautiful, Asian faces. There must have been 30 little kids and babies on board, parents were busy getting them settled, folks were hanging out all over the place talking – it looked and felt like a party! It was great! As I made my way to the very furtherest corner of the plane I wondered- do I look like I fit in? That’s been a question I’ve had most of my life- at least as soon as I realized I looked different from everyone in my neighborhood but my brothers. (The real question is “Who is it that thinks she has to “fit in” and what does that mean, anyhow?)
I immediately made friends with the woman next to me- Kelly was part of a group of teachers on a 3 week historical tour - and settled in for what ended up being a good flight.
Our flight path took us up over Toronto and over northern Canada. I followed the air traffic controllers as they passed us off into Russian airspace. At one point the video screen showed us where we were- about 1000 miles north of the West coast, skirting the Arctic. It was shortly after that we began traveling across the Beaufort Sea. There was nothing but very frozen sea for hours then gorgeous mountains of northern Siberia. Northern China was also mountainous and had beautiful terraced farmlands nestled into the hills. Having brought my own food I avoided the 3 somewhat suspect meals they served, drank lots of water, walked and stretched, slept and people watched! We landed and somehow managed to deplane faster than many much smaller flights I’ve been on. After making way through three checkpoints and getting my luggage I got a cab and made it here through the crazy traffic. Bicycles everywhere, pedestrians stopped in the middle of the street with cars zooming around them, lots of cabs and very few English signs. This is going to be fun!
So, here I am, happily fed my usual course of lots of veggies, rice and prawns… green tea… and I am beginning to lose whatever semblance of equilibrium I had earlier. I still feel as if I’m in the plane, shimmying even though I’m sitting here, 6000+ miles from home, content and confident that the next days here will be amazing. And I got my computer to work. The only glitch was when I went onto the blog site it came up in Chinese. Oops. So I’m trying this via email.
More tomorrow!
Sweet dreams, y’all!
Love,
Monique
I got to Beijing safe and sound, slightly sea(air)sick as I was sitting in the very rear of a very large 747. It was an aisle seat (good) but I felt every shimmy of the fuselage as the plane made its way to earth and was buffeted by some turbulence. Right now it is 6:15pm on 6/15 (hey! How about that!) I’ve had dinner – or breakfast (have been up 24 hrs I think) – it was very yummy and I am recalling the highlights of the day.
I arrived in D.C. late and had to pull an OJ Simpson- remember him? (no, I didn’t get away with murder) and raced (not at all gracefully) with my knapsack and laptop flapping against me, to the gate and down the ramp to the plane. I slowed then and walked into what felt like a cruise ship. 747’s are HUGE! They play nice relaxing music preflight to keep everyone calm but when I turned the corner I was met with a sea of smiling, chatting, very lively, beautiful, Asian faces. There must have been 30 little kids and babies on board, parents were busy getting them settled, folks were hanging out all over the place talking – it looked and felt like a party! It was great! As I made my way to the very furtherest corner of the plane I wondered- do I look like I fit in? That’s been a question I’ve had most of my life- at least as soon as I realized I looked different from everyone in my neighborhood but my brothers. (The real question is “Who is it that thinks she has to “fit in” and what does that mean, anyhow?)
I immediately made friends with the woman next to me- Kelly was part of a group of teachers on a 3 week historical tour - and settled in for what ended up being a good flight.
Our flight path took us up over Toronto and over northern Canada. I followed the air traffic controllers as they passed us off into Russian airspace. At one point the video screen showed us where we were- about 1000 miles north of the West coast, skirting the Arctic. It was shortly after that we began traveling across the Beaufort Sea. There was nothing but very frozen sea for hours then gorgeous mountains of northern Siberia. Northern China was also mountainous and had beautiful terraced farmlands nestled into the hills. Having brought my own food I avoided the 3 somewhat suspect meals they served, drank lots of water, walked and stretched, slept and people watched! We landed and somehow managed to deplane faster than many much smaller flights I’ve been on. After making way through three checkpoints and getting my luggage I got a cab and made it here through the crazy traffic. Bicycles everywhere, pedestrians stopped in the middle of the street with cars zooming around them, lots of cabs and very few English signs. This is going to be fun!
So, here I am, happily fed my usual course of lots of veggies, rice and prawns… green tea… and I am beginning to lose whatever semblance of equilibrium I had earlier. I still feel as if I’m in the plane, shimmying even though I’m sitting here, 6000+ miles from home, content and confident that the next days here will be amazing. And I got my computer to work. The only glitch was when I went onto the blog site it came up in Chinese. Oops. So I’m trying this via email.
More tomorrow!
Sweet dreams, y’all!
Love,
Monique
posted by Monique @ 11:29 AM
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