On the Plane

I am currently on the plane and I could not wait to get to Xian to do a post.

I woke up this morning at about 2:30am because I could not sleep so I figured I would check the Phillies score and go right back to bed. Instead I stayed up and spent about an hour on Skype with my dad watching the game and I was able to catch the Mets blowing another lead. If there are any Mets fans reading this…de ja vu?

Before I left the hotel this morning I figured I would wear a USA t-shirt and my credentials to see if I would get preferred treatment in our travels. Getting to the airport was really easy. We took the subway to the airport express line. It is 25 rmb to get to the airport but because I had my credentials on we rode for free.

Once in the terminal we had to go through an initial security check. The line was pretty long but they saw my badge and told us to come up to the front. After the initial security check we had to walk about 15 minutes to the check-in area. The place was a zoo and the lines were killer. We were standing in line and this women came up to us asking if we had to check any bags and we told her no. She said we could check in at the electronic kiosks. We told her we couldn’t read Chinese so that would be impossible. She got a kick out of it and took us to the line with our passports…cut everyone off and printed us our tickets. I asked for 2 aisle seats across from each other.

Going through airport security in China is pretty interesting. There was this huge line and then they allow one person at a time. We waited for a few minutes and then it was my turn. They check your ticket and then it’s the usual security check. I took out my laptop, cell phone, and iPod and put it in a bin and then sent my bag through. They checked my ticket again and I walked through the metal detector. Then another guy signaled for me to come to him. He checked my ticket again and made me stand on a platform where he searched me to make sure I had nothing on me. I passed but noticed they had pulled by bag off to the side. They asked me to open it up and they pointed at my toothbrush and toothpaste. I took it out and they asked what it was! I kid you not they asked what it was. I will give them the benefit of the doubt that they maybe have never seen an electronic toothbrush but you never know. I didn’t understand why they checked my ticket 3 times in the security line..a little strange.

Once we got through security we went to look for something to eat. China does not do airports like we do. They had this one place that was selling cold noodles and congee. For those of you who don’t know congee is boiled water and rice. It is the most disgusting thing ever but a staple here. We couldn’t find anything to eat so we just went to wait for the flight. Sitting in the waiting area we noticed a lot of Americans. Xian is a major attraction so it was nice to see and hear Americans.

My flight. Well I asked for an aisle and got a middle seat. I hate middle seats in the states and you can only imagine it here. I tried to sleep but the woman to my right is reading the newspaper and is not very good at keeping it her space. Half the page is on me. The guy to my left is also reading the paper so imagine poor me trapped between two newspapers. The best part about this is they are serving food right now. It is a small white box just like you would get on a states flight except the inside is much more interesting. I passed on the food obviously…I would rather starve! The contents of the box: A small bag of cherry tomatoes, a tuna sandwich (remember we are in a confined area so the smell is just lovely) and congee.

Not only am I jammed in this seat but also both people are going to town on their food. I am trying my best to not get sick. Between the stench of the tuna and other various smells it is making this flight very interesting. Jessica, Michael, Marisa, and Zach….think back to that one flight we took when we were kids and I flipped out….could be the second time I do that in about 5 minutes….The lady on my right just dropped the congee on her pants and is whipping it up with the newspaper!!!

We land in about 45 minutes and we have a driver picking us up and taking us to the hotel to drop our stuff off and pick up the translators. The translators decided to take the overnight train to save some money so they got in around 9am. We are heading right to the warriors first and then on our way back we are going to the hot springs.

I will keep you posted on the rest of the trip later just thought I would share my flight experience.