brb going to the other side of the world.

today was crazy! of course. i should expect that by now. i took the 10am shuttle to the airport this morning because i wanted to not feel pressed for time. the check-in area was slammed so i'm really glad i got there early. for a second i thought they were going to charge me $300 to check my bags but then i realized the computer said i already had two bags checked. the line to check my bags again moved pretty quickly. then i exchanged some $$$ for chinese money before i went through security. i met some people from sumter, sc in the security line and chatted with them for a few minutes. the guy graduated from high school with poppop! small world. as i was walking to my gate, i realized how much fun it is to travel alone! it must be because i'm independent or something because that just sounds crazy. there happened to be a starbucks right beside my gate, so i spent an hour or two there waiting for my 2pm flight. but wait! things can't go smoothly because that would just be too easy :) so they delayed then delayed some more then announced that "the plane is broken" thanks for being so specific. they told us they are towing a different plane to another gate that will leave at 3:30. then they gave out more $6 vouchers so i got izzies from seattle's best. we finally boarded the plane then they delayed some more because they had to "get all of the food on board" yumm airplane food. anyway, the point of the story is that plane took off in seattle and landed in beijing safely. PTL!! 

when we got our bags and went through customs, there were two drivers there waiting for us. we got in their vans and assumed they knew where they were going. they know where the microsoft building is, but we drove around for 15 minutes trying to find the hotel/apartments. actually they are apartments. we have to go register at the police station this week because we are "living here" when we finally found our building and the lobby, stacey was waiting on us! she is the wonderful lady that has been sending us the emails and setting this whole thing up. we put our stuff in our rooms and went find some dinner at 9:30pm. we let(made) the chinese speakers in our group order us some food and i downed a "cola" the food they ordered was actually pretty good!

we then went to see the microsoft building and found a bunch of guys watching a world cup game. i found out there are some ping pong tables around so i plan on learning some new moves :) we didn't stick around long because we are all tired so back to the apartments we went. i unpacked, showered, and made a list for walmart. tomorrow we plan on sightseeing so i'll try to take some pictures :)