We made it - Beijing

We made it. Exhausted but we are here and getting adjusted to the time difference and the culture again.  We must have arrived at the airport at the same time as every tour group visiting Beijing as the immigration and custom lines were painfully long.  Our guide from our agency was there when we finally had conquered the lines and we headed to our hotel. First thing we noticed was all the flowers in loom - last time we were here it was bitter cold. Even though this is Chris' sixth trip to China, it is his first time to travel in the warmer weather. And I believe we are going to be wishing it was cold the longer we are here. The weird spring weather we've had at home this year has done nothing to prep us for the heat and humidity we are about to endure.

Our hotel is located in a very busy part of Beijing. Before leaving us on our own, our guide Emma walked us around to show us good restaurant & shopping options, and of course the location of the nearest McDonalds and Starbucks. And then it was just us to tackle the next 36 hrs before we meet up with other families from our agency and do the official scheduled Beijing tour (all the things we've already seen). We are such exciting people the first thing we did was fall asleep on these tiny, tiny beds and take a short nap - well at least the two old people on this trip did. And so begins the ongoing dilemma of trying to figure out how long to fight the sleep before giving in, in order to try to regulate this tired body to the new time zone.  I suspect this may continue throughout the trip if history is any indication. And everyone was anxious to get connected so I put on my techie hat in order to get all the devices connected to the Internet through the VPN.  Given the quality of the Internet here at the hotel that was no small feat let me tell you, but it kept me busy until I thought it was safe to call it a night and hope to sleep through the night. Poor Andrew - he was wide wake still at 2am, needing to go to sleep but just not able.  And he was pretty sure each time I was sound asleep, he needed to wake me and tell me he wasn't able to go to sleep. It was quite a game we played until I think he must have finally dropped of exhaustion around 2:30. But of course, I woke on my own around 4:00 and wasn't able to get back to sleep - ugh.  So I did some work, caught up on email & Facebook until it was time to get ready for breakfast.  This routine is going to get old pretty fast.  

But we survived the flight and made it through our first day in China.