The journey begins...

Tuesday, April 8 – Wednesday April 9

These two days actually seemed just like one long day. I arrived at the Bradley International airport at 6:15AM and had my first surprise…we would be leaving for Chicago one hour earlier than originally planned. We boarded United Airline flight 381 at 7:00 AM and left Hartford in beautiful early morning sunshine. As we approached Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport two hours later the skies were cloudier…possibly foretelling of things to come. Yes, the United Airlines flight to Beijing that was scheduled to leave at 12:43PM was delayed…several times, until 3:30 PM for “aircraft servicing.” We spent six hours waiting in the airport for the adventure to begin. Most of the time was spent getting to know some of the other nineteen Connecticut educators. We finally got into the air by 4:10 PM. The flight was 14 hours long and it went north- west. We actually flew just a bit west of the North Pole and directly over Siberia. As I looked out the windows about five hours into the flight I could see the frozen tundra of Canada below, an area called the Queen Elizabeth Islands. Because we were flying northwest, somewhat into the sun, it never got dark outside. We had a meal just after we took off and again just before we landed. I used the time in between to review a notebook of information given to me about China and tried to sleep, as most people closed their windows to block out the sun. We touched down in Beijing at 6:10 PM on Wednesday, which was 6:10AM in Connecticut. I never had to change my watch since it was exactly 12 hours difference between Beijing and Connecticut. The temperature at the airport was a very comfortable 70 degrees and the sky was overcast, hazy, at dusk. The airport was incredible. It was brand new and the largest and most modern I have ever seen! The guide told us 500 people a day get lost in it. We were taken by bus to a very nice restaurant and ate dinner from 8:30PM until 9:30 PM. The food consisted of fifteen different dishes of fried vegetables, meats, rice and a soup. Finally, we got to our hotel about 10PM. It was a modern, five-star hotel, with accommodations pretty much like you would have in any fine hotel in the states…including internet connections. On TV my roommate and I watched CNN news and ESPN sports channels!