Flying In and Arriving in Kaifeng
8-26&27 (First Friday and Saturday)
This post followed by a few others will be uploaded at the same time and not the same date as writing… (No Internet Connection)
Today, I spent my last few hours in the United States…. Arrived at CLE at 5AM (Friday)… Flight from CLE to EWE (Newark) was short and uneventful… The 4 hours of sleep two nights in a row really started to hit me on this first flight… But I need to stay awake until the long flight so I am not disoriented when trying to transfer.
Newark Airport is very nice. The flight transfer was easy… (same Terminal) However, I was surprised to find that at our gate (for an international flight carrying 360+ passengers) there was only FOUR seats. Luckily, Ben and I spotted them early and enjoyed them until our flight boarded.
On the long flight (13 hours) from Newark to Beijing, I chose t sit in the very last row of the plane. I had a window seat and only one person between myself and the isle. This was turned out quite well. The gentleman sitting beside me was an American (about 6 years my senior) who has been living in China for the last four years. I found out that he has made his first trip as an English Teacher in Qingdao (Yeah its where that beer is made). He is currently working as a marketing rep for Porche in the same city. All in all, it was a decent flight; I didn’t get to sleep as much as I wanted, but I feel rested. The Direct TV (on demand) kept me pretty entertained with movies and TV shows…
The flight transfer in Beijing was quite interesting, to say the least; not difficult, just interesting. The terminal that we flew into was the brand new terminal created for the 2008 Olympics. Its large and gorgeous. The outside design, Ben tells me, was to resemble a dragon’s scales. (look up Beijing new airport on Google images to check it out.) our connecting flight was actually in a different terminal, which was more like a different airport. After clearing immigration, we took a train to claim our luggage, then had to take a city bus to get to the other terminal… there we had to check in with our airline (weigh bags and the whole she-bang) finally we made it to our gate and boarded without a hitch.
This third and final flight was also interesting, being a domestic connection flight there were only five 外国人(foreigners) and therefore this was the first time of almost complete Chinese emersion. The flight was short and smooth and we were soon in 郑州 (Zhengzhou- our local airport). We collected our bags and I was pleased to be greeted by “Jin” a young man from 河大 (Henan University) International Affairs Office, who was holding a sign reading only “Adam Ben” I’ve always wanted someone to pick me up from an airport with a sign!!! Jin and another gentleman helped Ben and I load our baggage into a van and drove us to campus. By this time (7 PM) it was beginning to get dark and Ben and I slept for most of the one hour drive…
Upon getting into campus, I was led to my apartment and left my bags. This time was roughly 9 PM and I was really tired, but not wanting to waste my first hours in my new home, I joined Ben to meet some friends and visit a local convenience store (owned by his friend)… Here I tried my first Chinese beer (in China) it was quite good; tasted almost like cider. However, I was disappointed to find out that it was only 2.5% ABV (half of what Budweiser is). But, for 2RMB (about 30 cents) for 500 ml, you really can’t go wrong… After our short walk, we made it back to campus around 10 PM. I was going to go directly to bed, but I thought that my apartment would feel more like home if I unpacked everything and stashed my suitcases… I think it worked. But, by 11, I was ready to go to bed. I was disappointed however to discover that my mattress was not really a mattress but rather just box springs… Rather uncomfortable, I am going to have to figure something out or get used to sleeping in a firm bed. But after only 9 hours of sleep within since Wednesday, any flat surface with a pillow was more than enough…
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