I'M IN CHINA!!!!

Dear readers… I’M IN CHINA!!!!! Yes sir, I am here and safe and ready to tackle some heavy tourism tomorrow. As of now, I am working on 26 hours of no sleep. For the life of me I could not fall asleep on the airplane with the kids crying and the constant movements of the passenger next to me. He kept putting his leg halfway into my area and it was very uncomfortable and awkward. We arrived in area and Sabrina on our team hit the snooze and was out like a lightbulb. It was quite entertaining to think of devious ways to trick her that our connecting plane had left without her. Anyways, the flight to Beijing was good and we landed safely.

Now, the swine flu situation in China is on high alert and anyone that is caught coming into the country with flu-like symptoms is automatically quarantined for a while (most reports say 7 days). I walked off the plane like any normal passenger and filled out a health survey like everybody else. Apparently, there are these cameras that sense high body heat and when I walked past it, the camera beeped. I was not surprised by this (everybody knows I have a hot body) but then they took me to a waiting area where they measured my body temperature to make sure I didn’t have a fever. Luckily, I didn’t and they let me go unharmed.

Our next adventure awaited us in the taxi drive to our hotel. We had to ride in four separate taxis and our driver had only been driving a taxi for three days… yikes! Luckily we came to an alleyway and were told the hotel was down that way. It took forever to get down that alleyway, slowing down for the mass amounts of bikes and people walking. It was soooo muggy and hot that I was already sweating through my shirt. Yuck! However, I did see a few places on the side of the road that look like cool places to hang out so I might stop by them one of these nights.

Well, that’s it for my first day here. I’m really loving my team right now and our translator Tracy is very fun and sweet. I’m sure I’m gonna have a great time tomorrow. Peace!

Love,

Michael