We arrived a bit before 10am, when our group was supposed to convene at the ticket check-in booths. We waited for quite a bit until everyone with their maroon colored orchestra shirts poured in. I pulled out my Beginner's Introduction to the Chinese Language book and Marissa, Kellie, Anna, and Annie and I entertained ourselves attempting to learn basic words and phrases we thought we would need sometime within the duration of our trip (Hello, How are you, I am doing fine, Thank you, I am a bit hungry, That costs too much, etc.). We final got through security and all that around 12pm. Annie, Mar, and Anna then got lunch at Lemonade. I was trying to save money and eat less so I didn't buy anything from the airport. I had brought pita chips, rice chips & granola bars, so I was stacked with snacks already.
Our entire orchestra split between 2 planes. With 57 taking Delta (including me) and the rest (forgot the #) taking China Eastern. The Delta flight had a layover in Seattle while China Eastern's was a 14-hour non-stop flight.
Our departure for Seattle was delayed for almost an hour, so we boarded at around 12:50pm plus or minus half an hour. We also had to move gates.
My first err of the trip! I lost the boarding pass my chaperon gave me in the 30 min duration I was supposed to hold it. I realized so during the gate switch. However there was NO HARM DONE because I had printed out my boarding passes from my home printer last night so I had extra copies. I still don't know where the lost pass was/is. I think I left it at the original gate.
Nothing else substantially interesting happened during the wait except that my friends thought they saw a man that they claimed looked like my father (an Asian in a suit). I guess it was a nice compliment because he looked about 20 years younger than my dad and wasn't bad-looking.
Oh yes, and tangentially related. My dad sent me a nice send-off text that Anna died of laughter over. Anna claimed this was a stereotypical Asian parent text. Dad, if you are reading this, I did read some pages of it. Lol.
The Seattle flight was fine and relatively short and sweet.
During our layover in the Seattle airport, Kell, Anna, Mar, and Annie got some Terriyaki Chicken & snacks ( I again abstained from buying stuff). After eating, we did literally laps. Yes laps, running and fast walking around the section of the airport we were in. We were trying to get our blood flowing before the 11-hour direct flight to Beijing. We even found a staircase which we sprinted up and down for further exercise. Other with than exercise, we entertained ourselves by creating group names for ourselves.
The 11-hour flight wasn't too bad. We flew over Russia! I'm currently typing this out on my phone with 19 mins of the flight remaining. I got a few hours of sleep and watched 2 movies (Her and The Book Thief). Annie just requested for me to include how she didn't get much sleep. She and Mar tried several different positions, draping their heads and arms over each other.
Okay Marissa is asking me why I am typing so much, so I am going to end this here. I hope you enjoy our lovely plane photos
UPDATE:
Reached hotel in Beijing! Took a bus
1:45 am here! Beds are hard but hotel is nice. Going to sleep now
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