Saturday, May 9, 2009

Day 0 – Departure from Ann Arbor to Tokyo and then onto Beijing

The security is tight at Detroit metro airport. I got stopped twice before I got on the plane. After getting a lot of my stuff confiscated (like my shaving gel, my shampoo, bodywash, etc etc), I was extremely frustrated. It was a good laugh though afterwards with everyone. I could always buy stuf from China for cheaper too!!
The 12 hour flight was exhausting to get to Tokyo, but nevertheless filled with so much fun!! It was great to bond with a few people from the group who were sitting next to me and just talking for much of the time, doing sudokus together, listening to music, watching Russell Peters on my Zune, reading books or newspapers, taking short naps, and just chilling in the plane together. Upon arriving in Japan, I noticed just a complete abundance of Asians and as a 6’ 3” Egyptian, I felt like I stuck out pretty well haha. Anyways, I strolled around the airport and checked out the origami for sale and the surplus of desserts/treats that were being sold at the small, clustered stores.

Yifan and the some of the girls were playing cardgames for the entire layover, while the rest of us either walked around, or rested.

Finally, it was time to board the next plane to Beijing! It was supposed to be a 3.5 hour flight, but it felt even longer than the first flight! There was this baby….about 3 seats away from me to my right that kept crying for about 85% of the time – yes, I was timing it, I got the biggest headache in the world and I couldn’t sleep because no matter how loud the volume was on my headphones, that kid’s shrieking and crying pierced right through to my eardrums…..

Once we arrived in Beijing, we were greeted by an incredibly friendly chinese man who drove us home in a bus. When we arrived at the apartments, I don’t remember exactly what happened except that I just lied down on the bed and instantly crashed…