No Place to Rest my Head

I hate traveling. I mean, the getting from point A to point B part of traveling, not the visiting new places and people. I have had my fill of dirty airport floors and the smell of airlines: recycled air, germs and BO. Gross. I am also envious of people who can sleep on airplanes. I can't. The first time I went to China, I took two NyQuill liquid gels and slept for seven hours which turned out to be a record for me. My friend Neil has a great picture of my with my face planted in Fluffy (my pillow shaped like a polar bear) and drooling.

There was blackmail involved. But he took pity on me and only resurrects it once every two years.

Needless to say, I have Tylenol PM handy. Sleeping is preferable, even if Neil will be waiting with a camera, again.

I finally found Neil (fellow Sias teacher and friend from my first trip to China) in LAX and he was already equipped with his camera.  He had been in the airport already for six hours.  Needless to say we were happy to see each other.

Neil and I met up with most of the other Sias teachers traveling on our flight in the check-in line. With my bags checked with no overweight fees (which are $220 to $300 per bag!!!!! I nearly had a heart attack when I found out), we made it to the plane with no problems and had a rather uneventful flight.

I took Tylenol PM like a good girl and managed to sleep some. More than I expected, on and off for 8 hours. Not restful, but not too bad. I haven’t seen any more blackmail photos from Neil yet, but I’m sure he has at least one new one. He slept only 3 hours.

Stepping off the airplane in Guangzhou reminded me how different China is from the USA (and especially Seattle). The air was thick with moisture and I could feel my hair curling as I walked to Customs. The smell is different: part earth, part pollution and part Chinese person. Not a bad smell, but distinctive.

We only had two hours until our next plane took off and we didn’t have our connecting boarding passes yet. After some misdirection and our group splitting because Whitney has a misplaced bag, we arrived in line too late to make the 8:00 am flight. Talk about having to trust the Father right off the bat, we had only been in China for less than a half hour before I was turning over control. After much waiting in line, we finally all got on the 11:00 am flight, which gave us plenty of time to check in, drop off our bags and make it through security. After another (shorter) uneventful flight, we arrived in Zhengzhou.

After collecting our bags, ten cheerful Chinese 'Culture Students' came to meet us and load all our luggage in a little bright yellow van.  These students are juniors at Sias, English majors, and part of the new teacher reception team that will help all the forgein teachers settle in.  They lugged all my luggage up four floors to my apartment and will take me shopping to help get all the supplies I need.

Seeing them reminded me the reason why I came back to China.  There are a lot of things in China that make me uncomfortable.  But teaching these students who are so eager to learn and excited to interact with Americans is why I love coming here.  My students in Tai'an were the same way. 

I am super jetlagged (woke up at 3.30 am) and a little overwhelmed, but optomistic. 
I will post about my apartment tomorrow, it needs its own post, for sure.  Pictures will be included.