In Beijing! ...after a terrible travel day...

Well -- I am in Beijing. I made it!

The trip, however, was not so great.

It started with my first flight from Raleigh-Durham to Washington, D.C. This was the worst flight of my entire life. It was non-stop turbulence and cabin-shaking. It was so bad that the flight attendants weren't even allowed to stand up. They began passing out drinks and had to quit after about 5 minutes. They did not get up at all after that. That is how bad it was. Had it been my first time flying, I would never have gotten on a plane again in my life.

So, I made it to D.C. and then got on the HUGE plane to Beijing. We were to lift off at 12:30pm. Well, at about 1:30pm we were called off the runway and sent back to the gate. Why, you ask? Oh, because we were having OIL issues in our RIGHT-SIDE ENGINE. So, while I finally calmed down following the plane ride of death from Raleigh, I then started freaking out because of that too. I mean, 13.5 hours on a plane that was having oil problems, it's understandable for me to freak out. So, we lifted off and we had turbulence -- pretty hardcore turbulence -- for the first 30 minutes or so. So, at this point I was just praying for some vodka and Valium... however, I received neither.

After the third hour on the flight, though, everything was fine. It was all smooth sailing from there. We watched a few movies on the plane... "Kung Fu Panda", "Made of Honor", "Iron Man", "Be Kind Rewind", and "Nim's Island". I watched "Kung Foo Panda" and "Made of Honor", they were decent. I was not at all impressed with "Iron Man". I refused to watch "Be Kind Rewind" and then I fell asleep during the last one. Oh, yeah, I slept... for about an hour of the entire trip.

Anyway, the turbulence sucked... the food sucked... sitting down for 13.5 straight hours sucked... death rides in airplanes sucked really bad too, however there were some good points.

This Canadian synchronized swimmer was sitting near me and she was smokin'! So, I had something fun to look at while on the plane, haha. Seeing the "near" North Pole (we were about 100 miles away from the actual pole). It was awesome seeing the ice and glacier-ish fixtures floating around the water. It was a sight! By far the second greatest part of the flight. The Canadian Swimmer definitely being the first.

So, let me tell you a little bit about Beijing. The smog is existent, however it is not even CLOSE to how bad it was about a month ago. The city is nice... it is like any other city. It has some amazing parts and some not-so-amazing parts. I'm currently in a hotel that is definitely on the side of amazing. It isn't glorious, it's a 4 star hotel in China standards, but it is a lot better than most of the hotels I saw on my way in... speaking of my way in...

Working for the IBAF makes me a BALLER! Because I work for an International Federation all of my travel is paid for. I was taken to my hotel (a 60 minute drive) in a nice SKODA for free! It was great... plus, they have special lanes designated on the road for Olympic workers. So, I didn't have to sit in ANY traffic. For the first 20 minutes I honestly thought the driver and I were the only people in China because there was no one on the road, but getting into the city, it became a little congested but we just drove right through. Look at Brad, he's a Baller!

I saw the Bird's Nest! It's crazy! I just drove by, but it is truly an engineering masterpiece, I will take tons of pictures, don't worry. Other than that I've just been trying to settle in. I was supposed to meet my boss at the airport but my flight was delayed. So I checked around for him in case he stayed but I didn't see him so I've been alone this entire time. I've called his hotel and stuff but he is MIA. I just got an email from him and it looks like his flight was delayed even more than mine because he was just getting here at about 5 pm. So, at least I know he's in the city... it makes me feel a lot better than I was a little bit ago.

Anyway, this became way longer than I was expecting it to be. I'm exhausted. I'm going to try and take a light nap until I hear from Jake. Leave some comments or emails or something... I'm 12 hours ahead of you all!

HOLLA!