Chillaxin' in Beijing

Wooooo what a day. Got up pre-dawn on Thursday (at like 545), and it's now 11:30 on Friday afternoon. I'm running on >1 hour of sleep, but I dragged myself all the way down to the lobby of our hotel to post an update. You're welcome.

The flights for the most part went very smoothly. Peoria to Detroit was quick. Then we had a couple hour layover in Detroit. That airport was actually kind of awesome. I have some pictures to post, but I'm way too lazy to do it now so I'll get around to it in the next couple days.

The 12 hour flight from Detroit to Tokyo was incredibly boring but somehow seemed like it only took about 8 hours. The in-flight movie was What Happens in Vegas, which was cool because I was planning on renting it sometime, and now I don't have too. It was pretty cliched and predictable, and I probably wouldn't recommend it. I didn't sleep at all on that flight. I only had one of the three meals they served, but it was actually delicious (it was chicken with veggies and shrimp). But all airline food, regardless of taste, has that sickening smell to it so I couldn't take anymore.

Tokyo airport was cool, I'd like to actually vacation in Japan someday. We were there for another couple hours before our four hour flight (which was delayed an hour due to storms) from Tokyo to Beijing. This is the flight where I caught about 45 minutes of sleep, only to awake and see people around me watching Iron man on their screens that are built into the seats. So of course I started to watch that, but then realized it comes out on DVD in September so I switched over and started to watch Shallow Hal instead. I only got through half of it before the flight landed, so I'll definatley have to rent it to see the rest. It was funny.

But I'm guessing no one is reading this to hear my opinions on movies (although maybe you are, in which case you're very strange), so I'll focus on some of the more interesting things.

Our family sticks out like you wouldn't believe. My dad is lugging his cameras around everywhere, filming and taking pictures at the most inconvenient of times (like when we're trying to get our luggage to go through customs, and there's a big sign that says NO PHOTOGRAPHY, and he breaks out the camera anyway...) The problem is that I've seen a couple of good photo ops that have gone without pictures. When we were leaving the Beijing airport, there were two security guards at one of the entrances. One had his face flat on the table they were sitting at, asleep, and the other guy was playing a PSP. Classy.

Even though I've done this all before, it feels different. I think I'll be able to appreciate the culture and the experience much more this time. The vast differences within this society are awesome. This whole vacation is adventuresome, at least compared to all the other ones I've been on.

Before I go (battery is almost dead and I've had 1 hour of sleep in the past 31 hours), here's our schedule for the next few days. Tomorrow we get up at 830 (its about 1240am here at the time of this post) and go to Tiennamen Square, Summer Palace, and some other place which I'm forgetting at the moment. Sunday we go to the Great Wall and an Acrobatics show. Then on Monday we leave Beijing and go to the province where Isabella is at and pick her up. We stay there for about 5 days before going to another city.

Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to post again tomorrow night with some pictures. But as for now I've got to go enjoy my five hours of sleep. Later everyone.