High Speed Experience

On Sunday, Matt and I went with two other Missouri students down to Tianjin. We read that China unveiled a new bullet train, and we had to experience it for ourselves.



Watch our video from our day trip. The trip was a lot of fun, I hope to return to Tianjin before the end of August!

Mark

We're Here!!!

Landed yesterday afternoon, safely!

We flew over the US, Canada, Russia (Siberia), Mongolia and finally China... after 24 exhausting hours in a car, bus and on plane, we arrived 'home' for two months.

We're at Renmin University of China (The People's University) staying at its on-campus hotel. Beds are quite tough (like a slab of concrete, with only little give) and pillows are really heavy and feel like they are filled with jelly beans!

We met last night for the first time as a group of 61 students! We were given cell phones, instructions about dining on campus, and told to meet back at 9:00 this morning. BOCOG will be taking our pictures, giving us UNIFORMS! for the games and more information on our volunteer experience. We'll finish off our day with our first Chinese culture class (and we're having a translator translate it from Mandarin to English).

I'm still adjusting to the 13 hour time change, most obviously because it's 5:45 in the morning and I'm blogging! I was so tired last night, I was asleep by 9:45!

I'm already making great friends in the Mizzou group. I don't think I could've asked for a better set of people to spend two months with. Everyone is so nice and easy to approach, and deal with our huge language barrier! I had a waitress in our restaurant last night come up to me and start chatting away in Chinese! I did exactly what came instinctively, start talking in slow English, as if she'd understand me any better!?!?! She tried the same with me in Chinese, but to no avail! We had to get one of the Renmin interpreters to bridge the cultural gap.

Have a great day,
Mark

(Pictured: The map that was updated during our flight, the MIZZOU group congregating at Beijing's Capital Airport and "The Nest" on the Olympic Green.)

Day 1 - Jumping Time Zones

Six hours into the flight I find myself listening to the "Olympic Fanfare" in my iPod.  I'm nervous and excited at the same time - mostly nervous because I do not know what it is going to be like as soon as I step off the plane in Beijing.  The 747 is equipped with monitors that tell us everything from how many miles we've traveled so far to how cold it is outside.  A map in real-time shows us where we are.  Currently, we're traveling over the North Pole.  Out the window I can see huge ice sheets in a clear, white environment.  I have to admit I was nervous about spending 12 hours confined to my seat, but it's been good.  The food is nothing to write home about.  (but I guess I'm doing that now)  It feels like every time I finish food or drink, the flight attendants are coming around with more.  The other students are spread throughout the plane, but we occasionally get to talk in passing.

My bag at check-in was three pounds over the weight limit!  Frantically, I grabbed a bag of electronics from the suitcase and weighted the remaining bag - 50.0 pounds - just the right weight.

We drove by bus to our hotel.  Traffic in Beijing is CRAZY!  Our bus missed the exit off the freeway and STOPPED on the freeway and BACKED UP!  Cars don't use turn signals and just slip in where there is the smallest room.  Our bus was literally inches from other cars as they butted in.

We checked into our hotel and walked around campus to find the diner.  The campus is nice - lots of people are exercising (running around a track, playing basketball) and there are a lot of buildings around the area.  Surprisingly, the campus and downtown area have many parks and trees.  It was very humid today but the pollution is NOT as bad as I thought...at least right now.  A couple of minutes ago our power went out on the entire floor.  We were all in the dark for about 10 minutes, but things are back up and running!  Quite an interesting first day!

Ted

Finally in Beijing

As Ted said we flew over the North Pole on our nonstop flight from Chicago to Beijing. Here are some pictures take from outside my window. Yes... I got a window seat. How lucky.



Here is another picture from my window seat of 51A. This is Siberia. There really is no civilization around.