Well, as I posted last night, I did indeed arrive safely in China! The flights seemed endless. It felt like I'd spent my whole life on the first flight (14 hours) and then I had to get on another one from Tokyo, which was four more! At least I had a travel buddy - a clarinetist from the orchestra had the same flight. The really bad part of the journey began after I got off the plane. Because Shijiazhuang, our first location, is quite a drive away from Beijing, there were only three buses all day to our hotel, so I had to wait until 11 pm to catch the bus (my flight landed at 8:30). There were some other people there, most of whom I hadn't met before. After we got on the bus, we had a four hour drive to Shijiazhuang, which turned into five hours because of bathroom breaks and because the bus broke down in the middle of the trip! Fortunately the driver was able to fix it and we didn't have to stay there on the side of the road for too long. On the other hand, I'm super jet-lagged since I didn't get to sleep until so late, so my plan of sleeping certain hours on the plane in order to avoid the dreaded jet-lag was foiled.
I was really surprised when I first got to Beijing. A lot of things seemed a lot more similar to the United States than I had anticipated. When we were driving down the highway, I kept forgetting that I wasn't in fact in the US. However, as soon as I noticed the excessive smog (which is visible at all times) and the trucks piled with logs, that seem very unsteadily piled on the flatbeds, I remembered where I was. During this trip, I also encountered the sketchiest place I've ever been to in my whole life, which was a bathroom rest stop. They didn't have toilets or toilet paper. There also was no heat or soap in the bathroom. It was super disgusting. I think I'm going to start carrying around toilet paper and hand sanitizer everywhere I go! To top things off, as soon as we exited the bathroom, this car pulled up and a bunch of Chinese men started piling out of the trunk. It was very strange. You know you're not in the United States anymore when...
So anyways we arrived at the hotel in Shijiazhuang at 4 AM local time. My roommate is an American violinist who I met on the last tour, so that's nice. We have our first sectionals today, where we'll receive our part assignments.
that's cool. btw you should def carry around toilet paper... or tissues cuz i dind't go to a single public bathroom (that i can remember) in asia that had toilet paper, although some touristy places had the option to buy it..... btw that happens in s. america too sometimes.
ReplyDeleterbabe