Day 1: And so it Begins....

A light, easy day: The group meets for the first time (officially), assembling in the hotel lobby, at noon, for lunch at the Jackpot Club at the Landmark Hotel, located... across the circular drive in front of our hotel; a 20 second jog in the rain.

Afternoon was downtime and we next gathered for dinner at an anonymous restaurant at the Beijing YongAn Hotel. This was far enough away from the Sheraton that we had to be bused: A right out of the hotel, then the first left, the first left after that and then the next first left then the first right. Which put us on a road adjacent to the back, as it were, of the Sheraton, a couple of hundred yards from it. On the other hand, it was raining and there are a number of little kids....

Quickie reviews:

Jackpot: Eh, and our table had, well, unacceptable service.

Chez Anonymous at the YongAn: good, except for the interruption of a call from our alarm company to tell us that the burglar alarm at the house had been tripped.... (A story for another day, maybe....)

/mitchell

A word from Shayna

Hi!

We have been in China for two days. So far we went for a walk in Beijing (near the hotel where we're staying, the Sheraton Great Wall)and saw many things such as fruit carts, bikers, people selling pencils and pens, and a lot of people selling DVDs. We got three movies on a pedestrian bridge over a main road and highway near the hotel. I got Norbit and my dad got Fantastic Fours 1 & 2. That's all for now.

Sincerely
Shayna

Dad adds: FF2 was in French but who was to know?

And we're staying here:




Link.

/Shayna and mitchell

Mission Accomplished!

Well, not really (there are still a couple of movies to score on dirt cheap DVDs). One of my missions on this return was to investigate whether China has discovered red sauce and a perfectly adequate Spaghtetti Bolognese is available.


It is, it is, it is!! (Annie's.)

-- post + photo/mitchell

First Photos

At some point, waiting for launch on the 27th:






-- Post + fotos by Mitchell

29 June

Touched down in Beijing at approximately 0400 hours Friday morning.

Was to touch down like 6:00 P.M. Thursday.

As I was saying in the last post: Get to JFK and through security around 2:30. I was told by a fellow passenger plane already delayed two hours.

Sometime thereafter, corrected information pops up on display: flight delayed til 8:00.

8:00 comes goes. Storms come. All other gates along the wing where out gate is announce delays, update their respective info for their passengers.

But not the flagship of the PRC.

Short version: Passengers get rerstless, almost unruly. We're boarded at 11:30. The girls are seated in the middle of 4-across on the world's oldest 747 that is still flying. I'm in the middle of 3-across. We're I am, there is no A/C, no adjustable vents. It's a sauna. Get repeatedly kicked by passenger behind me. All trip, I'll try to sleep, to no avail; get minutes on the hour.

Rewind: What's interesting about the boarding is that no other flight in our wing of International departures boarded because of the storm.

So it's not surprising that we end up on the plane, waiting, til takeoff. At about 0300 hours.

So, yeah, the flight sucked. Plane configured for maximum seating; no room. Minimal amenities. Rotten, limited food. Two bad movies. Theoretically not allowed to boot computer or DVD player. Boot them anyway, eventually and the flight starts to suck somewhat less.

Ugh.

Good point: Landed a half-hour early in Beijing.

Disembarking, I get call on cell from... a colleague who won't be named. And receive a text message Shayna sent from JFK Wednesday night (ET).

Taxi at an exorbitant rate to hotel (I was in too big a rush to get to hotel and shower to care about a relatively modest act of extortion.)

Check in; being a day late no problem. Shower, drop down for breakfast.

Meet someone from our tour; from our part of the world no less.

Return to room, and Shayna and I get hit if not by jet lag per se, the reality of pretty much being up very approximately 36-odd (some torturous) hours.

We're here!

-- mitchell

10:08 and We are...

A brief post from the floor of JFK's International Departures -- I mean, literally from laying on the ^%$#ing floor:

Not on our away, sitting on the floor near the gate.

The 4:30 departure, I was told as I was passing through security, was delayed two hours; allegedly because the plane was delayed getting to JFK from Beijing.

-- mitchell

Why are W Still Here???

4:30 departure delayed til 8:00 -- P.M., I think.

Yippie-ki-yay, to coin a phrase....

And Now We Start to Get Freaky-Deaky....

Depart for Beijing 27 June 2007.

Are we ready??

Of course not.

The question to ask is: Will we?

Undoubetdly.

So the real question is: How crazy will we get getting ready???