Day 1: The Trip to China

The journey began for me a 3AM in the morning, after our conversation on Line. After leaving
the side of my phone, I headed upstairs already exhausted to take a quick shower. Days of lack
of sleep were already playing its toll on my body. I could feel every motion of my getting slower
and slower. The shower helped. I had wanted to take a shower before my long flight knowing
that I wouldnt be able to shower during that flight, but the shower served another purpose. It
washed some of the tiredness away. Following my shower, I took a few minutes to gather my
belongings, said my final goodbyes to my mom and sister before I went with my dad and the
others (my grandma and my moms friends daughter, July) to the airport.

As my dad started the car, I turned on the radio to cheer my heart up for the trip. No one likes
saying goodbyes. Like I had told you, the funny thing was Call Me Maybe was the first song
that came up on the radio! I was definitely cheered up by that. You know how you sometimes
associate songs with people (i.e. Julia with wellJulia), this song reminds me of you every time
I hear it. For some reason, kind of like you, it grew on me. You know you said you would be
there with me in spiritwell I guess you werent lying!

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful as I tried to stay awake. I would occasionally
munch on a strawberry wafer to stay awake and to satisfy the hunger in my stomach from
skipping the early breakfast in preference of the shower (And yesI still have some left haha
). Finally, my dad pulled to a stop at the airport, but by then all the tiredness the
shower had washed away had already come back. In fact, I felt quite out of it. I guess staying up
may not have been the best decision. Its okay though, as a caveat, I got to hear your voice one
last time before my trip.

After a hurried goodbye with my father, I went through the line to turn in my baggage and get
my plane tickets. Everything went quite smoothly as I made my way to the terminal. For once,
even the security check went by without a problem (both times to and from San Diego, they
made me step aside and they checked my bag). Once in the terminal, the anxiety of the trip
began to settle in. I could tell my grandma was anxious as well. She didnt sleep well the night
before and looked just as exhausted as me, but I could tell she was filled with excitement to go
back. She was always rushing ahead (although she had no idea where she was going =.=). She
would also constantly ask me, When are we boarding? I felt like I was dealing with a kid on a
road trip asking, Are we there yet? Hahait was definitely amusing.

Lucky for me, a short walk from my terminal was a little coffee shop. To wake myself up
(which in retrospect may not have been the best decision as I needed sleep), I bought myself a
cup of Vanilla White Mocha Coffee. It was delicious !! And to satisfy my hunger, I got myself
a blueberry almond oatmeal, which for some reason hit the right spot for me. After drinking the
coffee and eating some more, much of the anxiety, went away.

Look at the mother and daughter!!! It was really cute because the daughter was the one who paid
with some credit card haha Below is what I ordered: Note what the coffee cup says: What do
you stay awake for?



Shortly after, we began boarding on to the plane. It was relatively unremarkable, but I could tell
my grandma was impatient to get on that plane. I had to keep reminding her, we are Group 7, we
have to wait until they call us. They would be like Group 1, please come to the termina, then
group 2, and group 3, etc., and every time, my grandma would be, Its time for us to board
right? Hahaha

Once boarded on the plane, I got settled in. The flight was pretty boring, and nothing really
happened. My grandma slept the whole flight, while I because of the coffee stayed awake. I
found myself playing games on my iPhone and listening to music. The flight was relatively
short, and after 1 hour, we were already in Newark, NY. Were you at this airport before going to
Singapore or were you at a different one? I think you mentioned JFK? Are they two different
airports in New York? (below is a picture)



Anyways, this airport was quite huge! I mean, we were at like C136and C135 was to Turkey
while C137 was to London! We had to wait there for about an hour, and I spent much of that
time walking around and listening to music. After going to so many airports over the past week,
its been interesting for me to look around and notice the similarities and differences. It surprises
me how no matter what airport I am at (aside from Richmonds airport), it seems as though there
is always a lot of people getting on plans. Where are all these people going? Sometimes, when I
am bored at a terminal, I like to watch the people walking by and guess what their final
destination is, making up what their story might be.

From New York, we took another small plane to Toronto. You want to hear something crazy?
The flight attendant on that plane from Richmond to Newark was the same exact flight attendant
on my flight to Toronto! What are the chances? (the planes were definitely different.) The flight
itself was very uneventful. As the effects of the coffee began to wear off, I found myself dozing
off more until I finally gave in to a 25-30 minute nap. The trip itself was again, only around 1
hour, and pretty soon we found ourselves in Toronto, Canada!

The airport in Toronto was also quite big, and for once, I had a harder time finding where I was
supposed to be. But, I decided to forgo my pride and ask a couple of workers for directions. I
didnt want to get lost because I didnt want to make my grandma walk too much. Although she
is physically quite fit, I could tell she was still tired from lack of sleep. We didnt have to go
through customs, which was cool. We just had to fill out this form and go though another gate
security check (which again went very smoothly! I think Canadians security people are nicer).
Once past the security check, we were into the terminal and we walked to our gate to wait.

Amazingly, we had a what a coincidence incident! One of our family friends from Richmond
was there as well! I mean what are the chances we would be on the same flight? They came
also from New York, but because of some issue with their ticket, they had to stay at New York
overnight before coming to Toronto. Lucky for us they were there because we could then leave
our stuff with them while we got some food.


(Above is a picture of the airport from the seat at the restaurant I was eating at. On the right is
what I ordered, it was some pasta with sausage and hamnot too bad, but not amazing either)

My grandma and I then went to this caf (I guess you would call it a caf) called Barcardi, which
if I recall is some alcohol brand. They had an extensive selection of alcoholic beverages, which
neither my grandma or I were interested it, but they also had some interesting dishes. I ordered
this pasta with sausage and ham in a tomato sauce, while my grandma had chicken tenders with
their house recipe sweet and sour sauce and rum barbeque sauce.

After a satisfactory meal, Julys flight also arrived, and so she would be on the same flight as us
back to China. (Another coincidence, the friends that we met earlier were exactly the row in
front of us! Wowhaha). Anyways, the plane was quite big, so the boarding process took a
while. Once on the plane, I found my seat and got settled inI got the middle seat with my
grandma on the left and another old guy on the right.


(Above is pictures of and on the plane that took me from Canada to China!)

I thought to myself, This is going to be a fun trip But as it turns out, the old guy next to me
was a very nice and interesting person. Hes actually a professor at Hubei University who took
10 months off to be with his daughters in Toronto and who was going back to China to deal with
work related issues. After my brief nap, food was served, and during that process, he started the
conversation by asking me to order strong alcohol for him (lol). Im not sure if he drank it or
not, but the waitress looked at me funny when I ordered for him.

During lunch/dinner (Im not sure what it is because it was at 3PM), we had a delightful
conversation where we talked about a wide range of topics. Guess what? He also reminded me
of you because hes a history professor!! WOWyou need to stop haunting me so much. Its
making me hard not to miss you.


Above is meal 1the only thing good was that bottle of water and that brownie
Anyways, we talked about his kids, Chinese education, American education, Canadian
education, food, medicine, eastern vs. western medicine, studying Chinese, etc. You know,
despite my initial bias, I think I was happy to sit next to him. I kind of new from the start that he
was a professorhe had this kind of feeland hes definitely eloquent when it the way he
phrases things.

On the trip we were given three meals, all of whichno good, but the 14 hrs passed. Nothing
interesting really happened. I was able to sleep a little bit. I passed my time by listening to
music, watching movies, and talking to the professor and my grandma. The sound didn't work so
I watched the movies, Captain America and Chronical, without any sound, which was
interesting. You get the overall point, but you have no idea what they are saying exactly. I love
those moments of dialoguethey mean nothing to me without knowing what they are saying.

Here are some pictures of the other meals and random stuff

They fed us cup noodles! Lol Small bottle of wine for the professor!


The crackers werent too shabbythat sandwich I didn't even eat The other picture is a
picture of the screen! We were halfway there!

This was the last meal we hadI picked to have porridge. Compared to the others, this wasnt
too bad haha


We arrived in Shanghai about 30 minutes late at around 3:40 PM. Everything was smooth as we
made our way out. My mom friend came and picked us up, and together we headed to
Changzhou. The weather outside, surprisingly, was lovely, and while in Shanghai, I could
actually see the blue sky. The ride took about 2 hours, and it was quite the ride. I had forgotten
how vicious and ridiculous Chinese drivers were. I may have my aggressive tendencies, but
nowhere the level of Chinese driversso when it comes to driving, I am definitely safe! Trust
the butler


Above are a couple of pictures I took in the car

Once we got the Changzhou, the light was disappearing, and the sky was covered by grayish
clouds. Ominous right? But, it turns out the night would get better! We went straight to a
restaurant where I met up with some family and friends including my
. It was good to see them all. The last time I was back was 3 years ago, and for a
moment, I felt I was thrown back in time because they all looked the same to me. I didnt talk
much at the meal, but I loved observing the conversation and everyone talking. For a moment, I
just thought to myself how much I missed moments like this.

The food, as expected, was amazing. We had a lot of dishes of all kind. Im not going to go into
details too much, but I took some pictures. Winning this bet is going to be difficultIm already
off to a bad start haha

When I took the pictures my wasnt there yet, but going from left to right we have family
friend 1, my , family friend 2, family friend 1s wife, , and

Below are all pictures of food!

Left: They were sooooo good, and salty ones too, not typical sweet ones!
Right: Beef short ribs...mmmmmmm


Drunken Shrimp! Heheas gross as it looks, it tastes quite good


There was more but after this I stopped taking photos hahatoo busy eating!

At dinner, I was able to sort out my schedule a little bit more. I will be in Changzhou for another
day or two before I head over to Lianyungang to visit my grandparents and my dads side of the
family. Following that I will be coming back to Changzhou where I will get ready to head to
Nanjing on 6/10 for about a week, and on 6/17, I will be traveling to around XianI think.

After dinner, I went over to my s place where I would stay for the night. I was able to meet
my and cousin, who is busy studying for the high school entrance examspoor girl

Anyways, I hope you are doing well! I will continue to keep you updated if you want since
chatting may not be as easy as before