Entries: Travel

Are we really FINALLY HERE?

Waking up (or not sleeping) to get to the Union Circle Drive by 5 a.m. Tuesday 5/15…... Exciting

The ride from Champaign-Urbana to O’Hare Airport in Chicago inside a limo van thinger…... Three hours

Finding out our 10:42 a.m. flight was delayed to 6 p.m. ...... Flabbergasting

Breakfast with the $7 voucher…... Free

Chilling inside the first-class private lounge area w free food…... $300

Finding out our 6 p.m. delayed flight got delayed 30 more minutes…... Hopelessening

Watching the Flight Info board go from 6:30 to 7 to 7:30 p.m. ...... Maddening

Traveling from Chicago to Shanghai…... Three movies, three meals, 13 hours

Checking into our hotel at 1 o’clock Thursday morning…... Relieving

Settling into our rooms at 2 a.m. Thursday (1 p.m. Weds in U.S.) almost 48 hours after leaving Champaign-Urbana…... PRICELESS.

Shanghai tour start, 31 hours in the making

After our 31 hour odyssey from Champaign to Shanghai we finally were welcomed by Charrise, our tour guide for the trip from the airport to the hotel. Charrise explained wonderfully the meanings of the name Shanghai and gave us a lot of other trivia.

Charrise our special guide in control - holding tight to the bus and telling us about Shanghai:
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Over 24 hours later, we've landed...

Ni hao! (sounds like Knee-how)

We have finally arrived in Shanghai—a city of 18 million people!! It was dark outside so we couldn’t see too much of the city… but my first impressions are that Shanghai is a mix of the US, Europe, and what I would have described as"Chinese.” The architecture varied upon each block we drove past. We’ll see how it all looks in the daylight tomorrow…

Yay Finally Here.

Thank you God, we are in China. United Airlines: we’re not friends right now. However, I did appreciate the brownie you served earlier. Props on the brownie. Anyway, the airport here in Shanghai is absolutely fabulous. The architecture was sweet. Column like bars were hanging from the ceiling. It was really neat. We made it to the Bailemen Hotel, and it’s on Nanjing Street. Nanjing Street East is where the shopping is, so I have big plans for that, and seeing the Bund. Tomorrow should be interesting, we have a meeting at 1:45, but I hope to do a little exploring. We’re across the street from a Buddhist Temple, so I plan to see that. It’s very western here. There’s an H&M really close, and an ad featuring Forrest Whittaker outside. Kinda nice…not too big of a culture shock yet. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

FINALLY

It’s 7pm and we are just now boarding our flight…almost 9 hours after our original scheduled departure time.