China: Day 1

We’re here … welcome to China!

We boarded our plane in Regina on Saturday morning (it still feels like this morning to us because we’ve been up for 26 hours) and left right on time. Thanks to Papa Sowden for the ride to Regina. During our two hour layover in Vancouver, we met Carol Anne (see picture on the right) and a few other travelers in our group.

We left Vancouver on time again and arrived in Beijing a little earlier than expected on Sunday afternoon at around 2:30 local time. Talk about a long stinkin’ flight … more about that later. Surprisingly, time flew by … pun intended.

Most of our trip was fairly uneventful. Much of our flight consisted of Asian folks making their way home with a few Canadians sticking out in the crowed. We just got back from dinner at an authentic Chinese restaurant. I’m told I ate some octopus, which I didn’t know at the time. That’s probably a good thing. Stacey rocked with the chopsticks!

They showed three movies on the flight here, which lasted about 11 ½ hours. The flight, not the movies. The first movie was “Hitch,” which is a pretty decent movie, made good mostly by a fat white guy who knows how to dance … “…everybody do the Q-tip!” The second movie starred a bunch of Chinese people we’ve never heard of. I didn’t bother to watch much of that one, but it seemed every time I looked up there were two Chinese people taking a roll in the hay … in the movie, not in the plane. How awkward would that have been? Guess what that movie was called. “Fear of Intimacy.” Interesting.

The third movie was “In Good Company,” a fairly recent comedy. It was during this movie that I missed part of the flick but experienced a little comedy of my own. About three-quarters of the way through the flight, we had a little turbulence. Against the better judgment of the stewardesses and the pilot himself, I decided to brave the shaky aisles and make a run for the bathroom. When nature calls, you gotta respond.

So I wobbled my way from my seat and down the aisle like it was my first day with the new feet. I was doing everything I could not to elbow some nice old Chinese lady or fall into the lap of an Asian guy I don’t really know. I mini-sprinted and finally made it to the bathroom, fully intent on taking care of business while there. Only when I was taking care of the aforementioned business, we thundered through some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever felt on a flight.

Now, after reflecting on this potentially messy situation, I suppose I have a few questions; concerns, perhaps. But there was one question that outweighed every other at that moment: how does a guy … hmmm … “hit the target,” shall we say … while being uncontrollably thrown around a three foot by four foot metal and plastic prison? Talk about working under pressure! The level of concentration to which every male is called in moments of greatness like that is what separates the men from the boys.

So there I stood – braced and ready for action – in my three by four dungeon, which desperately could have used an air-freshener, one forearm braced against the mirrored wall to my left and the other hand frantically grasping for anything to hold onto, and all the while, still trying to … “hit the target.” Again, how does a guy do that when one or both feet are involuntarily being hurled off the ground?!? Being a big guy, I didn’t really have a lot of room to spare. Being pushed around by an invisible bully didn’t help. I can only imagine the looks on the faces of the stewardesses (or airline attendants or whatever the politically correct title is) to hear all the banging coming from the bathroom. How convenient that they avoided eye contact with me when I finally came out.

Well, to spare you many of the gory details, I’m happy to report that everything came out OK … again, pun intended. What started as a quick trip to the can turned into a 20 minute stand-up roller coaster ride through downtown Hades.

Other than that, everything is good. Stacey, Carol Anne, and I are doing well and, as already mentioned, we have survived our first Chinese meal. We did a little shopping after dinner in a mall down the road, and it was crazy busy. You would never see this many people out shopping late on a Sunday night in Canada. It turns out I'm having difficulty posting pictures right now. I think it's due in part to the poor connection in this hotel. I'll try again tomorrow when we're at a different hotel.

Tomorrow’s agenda includes a two hour flight to Nanchang where we get Kaitlyn. I’ll be using the facilities before we leave in the morning, no doubt about it.