August 26th 2012 Almost there- Beginning My Travels to China

I made it! I'm in Beijing airport at an Internet Cafe alone drinking
Cappuccino and listening to C-POP. I think that officially makes me a
World Traveler. I even took artsy pictures of my coffee with the
background blurred to upgrade me to Eccentric World Traveler with a
blog, because everyone knows once you start taking pictures of
mundane objects in your travels you naturally start a blog about
them. I could have an entire blog full of pictures of Failed English.
I think I will include those here. On the plane I really wanted to
photograph the in-flight television show "Spongebox Squarepants."
Unfortunately you are not permitted to use your phone during the
flight and a camera would just be rude to others around me. You will
just have to imagine the fit of girlish giggles I had to repress at
the sight of the intentional typo made by mis-translation. If you ask
me the Chinese translation makes more sense, he is rather box-y.

View from my window seat

Traveling to another country is not as glamorous as it sounds.








I have had a total of 7 hours spent talking with flight attendants to try to
get my plane tickets switched to the proper flight after my company

 booked my flight a day late due to miscommunication. It has been a crazy past two days and I will be glad to finally reach my destination tomorrow morning to Zhengzhou. Once I am there the fun part of the trip can begin. I used to love flying and having hours to do nothing but read and watch tv, but now I am just plain tired. However, the cool part of flying is the people you meet next to you. I had a lovely time chatting with two Chinese citizens who were coming home from the U.S. One was a girl who was studying abroad in Boston and the other was a boy who had gone to America for the company he works

for, a cell phone company called "Cool Pad." They were very friendly and even obliged to help me write some Chinese when I had to fill out my customs paperwork. Apparently I could have just wrote Los Angeles in English, but I didn't realize that at the time.

Anyway I now have a new appreciation for those who come to America and
do not know English because I realize how scary it can be in a new
place where no one understands what you are saying. I'm determined now
to learn more of this crazy difficult language of Mandarin.

The only affordable and edible Beijing airport food I could find.

My travels have just began...