While packing last night, I started to panic a bit about leaving. Questions were cycling through my head. Why am I going? What was I thinking? What have I gotten myself into? Don't get me wrong, I was so excited to go, but I know very little about China, other than the few things I've read and watched in the past few weeks, and I do not speak the language.

I drove Kaitlyn, Angela, and August home around midnight. They came over to help me pack and offer moral support - though we ended up laughing more than packing - and I am so grateful to them for keeping me sane. I finally got to sleep around 12:30 with only a few more things to add to my suitcase, but my EpiPens were missing.

I woke up around 3:30 and got the few things I needed to add to my suitcase before making a mad search for my EpiPens. I hopefully won't even need them, but because of my severe cockroach allergy, my doctor wrote a prescription just in case. I hopped in the shower around 4, still not having found the EpiPens, and started to get ready to leave for the airport. Fortunately, my mom found them sitting on the stairs in the Walgreens bag and we were able to head to the airport in relatively calm form.

I checked my bags, said good-bye to mom (which I am convinced will always be the hardest part of any trip), and moved through security. Though the line was long, it moved quickly and I was the first one from our group at the gate. I bought some water and a book for the flight and when I returned to the gate I met Michelle and Dr. Lai. We talked a little bit about what we would be doing in China and found the rest of group members before it was time to board.

I sat next to Jeff, one of the other students from the trip. We talked about our past travels and some of the things we were hoping to see in Beijing and then we both slept almost all the way to Chicago. Our layover was about four hours long, but the time passed fairly quickly. A few of us circled the terminal a couple of times, just to be up and walking before the flight. I got a banana and we sat down to eat near the gate. It was a nice opportunity to get to know some of the people from the program. I knew Alex and Kari already, from other classes, but I got to talk to Michelle, Jeff, Amos, Leondra and Brit.

We had to have our documents verified and our tickets stamped by the airline and then it was only a short wait before we boarded. When I got on the plane, I stowed my overhead luggage, changed into slippers and got situated in my seat. Then a mother, father, and son, who seemed to be travelling with a bigger family group, boarded with tickets divided between three rows, with the little boy by the window next to me. There were several Chinese people discussing the seating and while I couldn't understand what they were saying, I assumed this was the topic of discussion. I was going to offer to switch seats, but couldn't figure out how to cut in or if anyone spoke English. The father then asked if I wouldn't mind switching. I said no problem and moved up a row, though it took me a few minutes to get my things together to move. A few minutes after I got comfortable in my new spot, an argument started behind me. It was in Chinese and I couldn't tell what they were saying, but many people from other rows began to turn around with worried or disgusted looks. The flight attendants had to come over to settle the dispute and even prepared to return to the gate, but then the conversation ended abruptly and never came up again as far as I know.

On the flight, I sat next to a little old Chinese woman who didn't speak any English. She was very sweet and took care of me during the flight like a grandmother. To find out why I was travelling, she picked up my landing card and pointed to the reason for visit section, asking me to point to the one I would check. I thought that was such a great idea, and she smiled when I pointed to the leisure and study sections. I was also able to help her with her television screen, despite the fact that I had to set it in Mandarin, and when I spilled my drink she had tissues ready to go. The girl on my other side was a student who had just spent a semester in Wisconsin and was returning to her campus in Beijing. She spoke both English and Mandarin and was able to translate for the older woman as well. We talked a bit about our travels and studies.

Though I had been able to sleep all the way to Chicago, somehow sleep eluded me on the way to Beijing. I read some of my book and listened to music, and when they fixed the television screens, I watched a few movies interspersed with reading and eating. I saw some bicycle movie that was not terrible, but not particularly good, The Avengers, which was, of course, awesome, Brave, and a few TV shows. Closer to the middle of the flight I was finally able to sleep for a little while, but although it felt like a long time, when I checked the time left in the flight only half an hour had gone by. I read a little bit more and watched another one of those movies before falling asleep again, this time for about an hour and a half.

Along the way we flew over the Arctic Circle, but it was too dark to see. We also passed through many time zones, so it was difficult to discern when New Year's happened, but I got a lot of Happy New Year texts when I got off the plane. As the time in the flight got down to 8 hours and we were barely halfway done, I thought about the fact that we still had an entire flight to Rome left. And when it got to 6, we still had an entire flight to London. I started to get a bit antsy and had to get up and walk around a few times to keep my knees from hurting so badly. By the end of the flight, I was looking forward to walking again.

Closer to the end of the flight, I was able to sleep quite a bit more. I had eaten the chicken and rice they served for lunch, but I skipped the other meal and snacks, knowing that more than one airplane meal would make me feel a bit sick to my stomach. I'm glad I made that decision because we had a bit of a rough landing. As we began to descend, we would drop a bit and then stop, drop a bit and stop. It left my stomach feeling a bit queasy, but we made it. Looking out the window as we approached Beijing, we saw beautiful snow topped mountains, just like those I would expect to see around Mt. Everest. However, as we approached the city, the land began to look very flat and brown. It didn't look like any other place I had ever seen before and I remember thinking to myself, we're not in Kansas anymore.

After we debarked, we quickly moved through customs, getting our passports stamped as we went. Our country really is the most paranoid about airport security. Even China didn't ask us any questions. We picked up our bags and then went to wait for Frank, our Chinese program director, to come pick us up by bus. We waited quite a while and as the sun set, it got colder and colder in the airport. When Frank arrived, we started to walk outside, but it was so cold, he sent us back in so they could move the bus around. We grabbed our bags and quickly got on the bus. The ride to CUFE, or the Central University of Finance and Economics, where we will be staying, took about an hour and the ride was pretty awesome.

As we pulled out of the airport, we saw Christmas lights and falling snow lights on the trees. The tollbooths looked like New York State tollbooths, but they were decorated to look like Pavilions. They were beautiful. One thing I have noticed in my travels is that roads always look the same. Even though the signs were in Chinese, the used the same symbols and colors and the bridges and streets looked like they could have been in the states. Most of the buildings in the city had Chinese lettering in big red symbols on the side, and many of them had lights outlining the building or other decorations in the front. I was really started to get excited.

When we arrived at CUFE, we had to walk across campus with all of our bags and the noise was unbelievable as all 13 of us rolled our suitcases over the pavement. We sounded like thunder and I couldn't help laughing at the vision of us invading the campus like a swarm of bees. We got some strange looks from some of the students we passed and we were all freezing, but we made it to our hostel and got our keys. We found out where the restaurant is and learned that we can have a hearty breakfast for about a dollar a day. We also looked at the dinner menu, which has pictures for us to point to. I am willing to try anything once, but some of those dishes looked pretty exotic.

Our rooms are on the fifth floor and there is no elevator, so it was quite a trek up the stairs with our bags. I am rooming with Alex, which works out really well because I think we have similar travelling styles. I wasn't expecting much from the rooms because they made them sound so awful during orientation, but they are really pretty cozy. We have two single beds, which are low to the ground and not much softer than the rock-hard bed I had in Rome, but it will be a comfortable stay for the two weeks we are here.

The bathroom has a decent size shower, a sink, and a toilet that looks like the ones in Europe, though getting used to throwing toilet paper into the garbage may be a bit of a challenge. Out in the room, we also have a table and chairs and a counter along the wall that we can use as a desk. We unpacked and organized our stuff and figured out which chargers we can use. My Ethernet cable doesn't work with my computer, but it works with Alex's so we will be able to get online. I am interested to see what is censored though. Logging in to Facebook does not seem to be an option.

We went downstairs to get a few bottles of water and then headed upstairs to bed. I wanted to write a bit, but I could barely keep my eyes open at 8:30.