Flight.

It is now 10pm thursday, China time, but due to the blog complications I am posting what I wrote on Microsoft word the past few days..


Today was long to say the least. I have never been on a plane ride longer than 5 and a half hours and didn’t really realize how insane being on a plane for 13 hours would feel. I was so excited when we finally landed that not even having a rolling suite case fall on my head from the overhead compartment could bring me down. Once off the plane we were greeted by the Special Olympics mascot… which is a rainbow colored anime panda, this was due to the fact that we flew with the a large number of USA Special Olympics athletes (A few of which were thoroughly puzzled as to why a wooden apple had a seat belt on).



The new Beijing airport T3 (terminal 3) is insane. It has huge ceilings and a new age industrial feel that I don’t think I can even begin to explain so I will attach a few pictures.

Saying the drivers in China are bad doesn’t quite due the act justice. These drivers are completely insane, but today only the drivers whose licenses ended in an even number were aloud to drive, so I am hoping for safer passage tomorrow. Drivers would merge without looking, pass in the shoulder and play chicken with other cars fighting for prime laneage... However I am yet to see a single car with even a scratch on it... Not only did I find the every other day thing interesting, but on the highways the far left lane is reserved for Olympic (and now Special Olympic) vehicles.

Our hostel is set up awesome. A few people are in rooms with 2 beds. Than the rest of us are in a room with 4 bunk beds. We also have a fantastic courtyard. The hostel is located down an alley, in what I can only describe as the trophy and sign district. Literally every other store makes signs or sells trophies.

We had dinner and a local dumpling hot spot and ordered probably 10-15 different traditional dishes. It was awesome.

Beijing is located on in the North Eastern part of China, and the food in this region is usually hearty due to cold weather, which means a lot of wheat and DUMPLINGS.