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I made it to China! The flight over was long (14 hours to Taiwan and another 3 hours --after flight changes to Sanya on Hainan Island), but overall it was good. The highlights of the flight were catching up on some moviEes. They played Valentine's Day (an okay movie but it was in English which was a bonus), they also played How to Tame Your Dragon but it was in Chinese, it looked like a cute movie from just watching what was going on. On every flight there was someone who helped get my carry on backpack out of the overhead compartment. While I didn't meet many people who understood English, everyone seemed friendly and considerate. In Hong Kong, I met a guy "Jimmy" who was going to Sanya with his friends for a golf retreat. When stranded for an hour in Sanya, he let me borrow his phone to make a call to the intern director which I was very thankful of. There is only so long I could stand in the humid, hot weather fending off taxi drivers.
When I reached sanya, my ride wasn't there! I was worried, but I eventually decided to walk to another terminal that was about a block away where I found the three other interns!! We loaded our things in the hot van and drove to our hotel in Sanya. It was a little bit of a culture shock to see the run down buildings and ruleless driving. We stayed in a building that I had no idea was a hotel, outside it looked like any other building but our room was nice with air conditioning!
From the less than 48 hours I have been here, I have noticed that the asian police are very suspicious of foreigners. Last night, a police officer took us to the police station where we had to register that we were in the country. Today, while we were parked, another officer wanted to know why we were there. While the police seem wary, as a whole I feel as if people are just curious.
The place we are staying at is great. We have wireless internet (no air conditioning), fans, and it is close to anything we need. Today, we had a great lunch with a guy who did not speak english. It's amazing how much fun we had even with very little actual words being spoken. It hits me that I'm in a different country when I go into a restaurant and I can't read the menu or order food by myself. Luckily, one of the other interns speaks some Chinese. It makes things simpler when trying to look for something in a store or buy smoothies at one of the many smoothie shops.
We also had the chance to see the floating sea turtle hospital! It was awesome! We took a taxi boat out there, and it not only was quiet, but it felt cooler!!!
Sorry about the rambled blog. .. hopefully, I'll get better at this..
Love you all!
- comments
Jeanne Hey Laura...I love your rambling blog..it sounds just like you....love you bunches!!!
Tim Hi Laura, wow what a difference for you. Hope you get to spend some time out on the sea turtle hospital....miss you.
Frank I am so jealous! Love the blog. Be safe and have loads of fun for me. Love you............Frank
Jan Overweser Hey Laura, How cool...China...How did they know you were a tourist...Did you have on a tourist-type tee-shirt and white tennis shoes...you need to blend, girl...Enjoy!! XOXO
Munch Yo sung do fung, Chinese for, you doing some fun stuff! Hope you don't have to eat any raw weird foods like on "surviver"! Glad you have Internet too! Hope to have your folks up to DV while your on vacation! Are the people all my size? Xoxo Munch
Linda hey ms laura...i am soooo envious....your mom sent the link...reading your blog is better than christmas...thrilled you landed safe and you are off and running...ENJOY...mitch said hi...luv ya
voo doo mama joo joo LAURA! i'm so glad you are having a good time. i'm skeptical about the color of the water. dont drink it. have fun with the turtles!!!!!