Day 1- Beijing: We made it!

The mystical dragon that carried us to Beijing.

Our luggage at Hong Kong International Airport.

Jen looking longingly at yet another plane for the day.

Busy intersection near our hotel.

BAN PO WESTREN FOOD!

Shopping plaza near the hotel

An easy guide to traffic patterns

Most importantly, we have successfully made it to China. It still seems hilarious to me to be able to type that. Going to China is something that other families get to do, not us. Unfortunately, Beijing is pretty blocked, so I am not able to log onto Blogger or Facebook to post until we get to Zhengzhou. Extra thanks to nanette for being magical and posting for us :)

So how was the flight? Not as bad as I had feared, honestly. We were, unfortunately, made to sit by a man who seemed intent to vent his disapproval and anger at anyone who would listen, and even those who would not. It began by him swearing loudly at another gentleman who expressed concern with his treatment of the overhead luggage. He later told the flight attendant that they should be "ashamed" to serve the food they did. It was typical airline fare in that it provided us with needed calories and little else. Basically, when he wasn't sleeping he was expressing his disapproval with colorful language. I'm sure under other circumstances he has redeeming qualities, but being next to him for 14 hours was a bit exhausting.

After a brief layover in Hong Kong, where we were serenaded on the plane by Unbreak My Heart in traditional Chinese flute, we arrived in Beijing. Our guide met us at the airport and took us to the hotel (Crowne Royal, very nice) pointing out a 7-11, grocery store, and steam bun house on the way. We made her point out the steam bun house again to make sure we knew where it was since steam buns are made of delicious. After our luggage arrived, we exchanged some money and hit the steam bun shop. Our guide neglected to tell us that no one there spoke any English. "No problem!" I thought, "I've been practicing for a few years, surely I can order us some food. What I didn't take into account was that while I can do a respectable job of ordering a couple items, I have next to no idea what the other person is saying in response. The difficulty is made a bit worse by the fact that my saying "I don't speak Mandarin very well," is seen only as me being modest. Remember how proud I was of our good accents? Yeah, they are actually a bit of a problem right now. Oh well. Thankfully, while the 4 or so other people in the shop merely chuckled at the white girl trying to order food, one guy stepped up and acted as a brief translator. Honestly, how on earth would I have known that they were asking me if we wanted it to stay or to go? After ordering and paying, we took our ticket to the back, where two men were responsible for cooking the food. We sat and tried to ignore the stares and well-meaning chuckles until they called for us to get our food. That's when I realized why there seemed to be some confusion on numbers while I was ordering. I had thought I ordered 4 steam buns, a perfect size for a small lunch. Little did I know that each bun was not a separate item, but sold as a set. They handed us two plates filled with about 5 golf ball sized buns each. So I did what any self respecting person would do. I acted like it was exactly right, grabbed a set of chopsticks and dug in, only halfway sure of what was in each one. Anthony Bourdain would have been so proud. Honestly, I was pretty proud too. It was a perfect lunch and perfect welcome to this totally new adventure we just started. I'm not sure if they were more entertained by my embarassing lack of linguistic knowledge, how exhausted and gross we looked, or the fact that we ate such a large amount of buns in about 5 minutes flat, but I think it's safe to say that we were not the typical clientele.

Feeling a bit more human, we made our way to the 7-11 for bottled water and a few snacks. We made our way back to the room and showered, took a brief nap, and managed to drag ourselves out for an evening stroll around the heart of the city where Kevin decided to buy a hat and managed to do so entirely in Mandarin and without accidentally purchasing 5. It's now 7 pm here (4 am our time) and I am determined to stay awake for another couple hours to try to adjust to the time change.

We got some pictures, but not a ton. There is nothing I can say about Beijing that hasn't already been said by almost anyone who has come here before. The city is a strange mix of old traditional architecture and new modern buildings. There are bikes everywhere, though I am pretty sure most are older than I am. Crossing the street is a bit crazy, especially if you have no idea how to do it and no Chinese person to tag along with. I didn't even try the bigger streets, but I did a passable job of the smaller roads. It's only slightly colder than home since there is a bit more wind, but not too bad. Kevin wore shorts most of the day since he is made of fleshy Thinsulate, which caused a lot of pointing and smiles. He opted for pants tonight.

I just have to say one more thing about the Mandarin speaking. I am in no way even a passable speaker of the language after nearly 3 years of study. I am wishing I applied myself more, but it is what it is. That said, it is incredibly awesome to me to be able to order food at all, even if it's not exactly what I was planning. It is very handy to recognize enough characters to be able to tell that a shop down the street sells cell phones. It is wonderful to be able to not feel frozen with fear that we were on our own this evening. It is reassuring to me to know that when we finally have Nora we can tell her it will be ok and not to be scared in the language she has heard since birth. I will never be fluent and I will probably always have to ask people to speak more slowly, but even having this much of a bridge has been amazing.

That about covers today. It's been a bit of culture shock, and overwhelmingly amazing to finally be in the same country as our sweet girl. Tomorrow's plan: Forbidden City. I'm thinking we'll take a few pictures while we're there.