First Blog from KC

August 3 2011

I decided to go to China and train with my brother after i took the CA bar exam.

When I got to the airport in SF I could not believe that I was actually going to China. I wasn’t excited, I wasn’t scared…. I just didn’t really feel anything. I went through security and it still didn’t hit me, but half way through my flight to china I felt home sick. I wanted to turn the plane around and go home to hug my dogs. The flight from SFO to Bejing was okay. There was a lot of turbulence but besides that the flight wasn’t too bad. The hard thing about a 12 hour flight is that you have to sit for 12 hours straight. I was only able to sleep for about 3 hours during my flight.

I arrived in Beijing at 5:30 pm local time, back home it was 3:30 am. I got my luggage and checked into Air china again for my domestic flight to Yantai. I had two huge bags. One bag was full of clothes and things I needed for a month here in china and the other bag was packed full of candy, twinkies, and American cereal for my brother. After I checked in I looked around at the airport shops. I ate dinner at KFC and decided to find my terminal even though I was 4 hours early.

Let me tell you about my KFC experience really quickly. I walked up to the register, in China you point to the picture of the item you want. Nothing is in English, if you don’t speak Mandarin all you have are the pictures. I point to a picture of fried chicken with a side and a drink. I do not get to pick what I want to drink because the drink is part of the meal. My meal comes with 4 little chicken wings, my drink is an orange/mystery fruit drink, and my side is chopped cucumbers with corn in some type of mayonnaise thing. Instead of a biscuit I get a custard cake, which was tasty. I didn’t taste the cucumber mayonnaise thing… it didn’t look too appetizing.

After I eat I head to what I thought was my boarding area. I sit there for about 3 hours reading my book. When I first got to the boarding area there were a few people there, slowly more people came but they got onto a flight for another city. After 2 hours alone at the boarding area I start to realize that I was in the wrong place. I get up and ask a lady if she knew where I should be, I was currently at C6 she told me I had to be at C53. The other side of the airport. I rush across the airport, and have to go down 2 flights of stairs and get to C53 but that was the wrong place too, I ask the lady where I should be and she tells me C17. I walk back upstairs to the main section to look at the main sign so I can find out where C17 is. Finally I see that its past C53 and at the very end of the airport. I turn around and again go downstairs.

I finally make it and sit down. I have an hour left till boarding. But while sitting at the gate, I fall asleep and would have missed my flight if a lady didn’t wake me up. I make it on the plane and arrive in Yantai. As I walk into the baggage claim area I see Scott on the other side of the security glass. I wave and yell to him that I have to get my bags. Even at this moment, the moment I see my brother who I know has been living in China for the past 10 months, my brain does not register that I am thousands of miles away from home on the other side of the world.

I am lucky my brother and his friend Matheiu came to pick me up at the airport because I didn’t arrive in Yantai until 11:50 pm local time. They have a taxi waiting and we load my bags into the van. Its an hour drive from Yantai to the academy. I’m a little scared because I know everyone will be sleeping and that’s including my roommate.

When we get to the academy it is completely dark. I’m more worried now because on the way to the academy the taxi driver tried calling to let them know we were close and to open the gate to let us in but no one answered. the gate was unlocked and luckily one of the masters heard us come in so he opened the door for us. He gave me my key to my room and Scott dropped my bags off and went up to his room. It is past 1 am, my roommate is asleep, the only light I have is the hall light that the master turned on when we came in.

I have to go to the bathroom so I leave the room and find the bathroom. The first thing I notice is that it smells like a “porta potty” (those plastic bathroom things you see at parks and fairs) AND then I notice there is no toilet paper! I rush back to my room, I know I have a pack of tissues in one of my 4 bags. I quietly try to search through my bags when the hall light turn off and everything goes black. “Crap” was the first thing that came out of my mouth. I grab my cell phone and use it as a flash light. I remember that my dad bought me 2 flash lights at Brookstone in SFO

By the time I get settled into bed its 2 am and I cant sleep. It is so weird. I wasn’t able to fix my bed the way I like it and I was barely able to check for spiders using my light. I tell myself there are no spiders and fall asleep.

I will tell u all about my first day later.

Xoxo,

Kc