Off on another adventure. Sorry about the late Harbin post... This past week has been crazy with midterms and getting ready for THIS trip. I realized that from two weeks ago in Harbin to the middle of April, I will literally be traveling every other weekend. Lucky me! Travel plans have changed slightly since the last time I posted about travel. Instead of Malaysia for the four day weekend in March, I'm headed to Tokyo with about half my house. It's going to be a big weekend of crazy fun. I'm in the process of booking various hotels, day trips, etc.
If there's one thing I'm doing a lot of lately, it's planning. I'm planning next year, this semester, the summer, my last two years of college, and my daily life. I have to remind myself to not plan so much and just LIVE. I think I could plan my life away and end up never actually living...
Last night was Chinese New Year. After a relatively crazy Friday night, our house was pretty exhausted last night. After some pizza and endless games of Mafia, we all got our our fireworks and headed down the the street. In China, fireworks aren't regulated, so people just set them off in the middle of the street...with cars... and people around. Our own show was pretty great; the boys got creative with the firecracker strings. Later that night, as midnight approached, we started actually running through the streets to make it down to the local temple in time to see the city light up. In a five way intersection near our house, there were fireworks going off at every ally leading up to the center circle, creating a picturesque scene as we all ran, fireworks booming and crackling on the ground everywhere, through the bright streets of Shanghai. It was like being in downtown Baghdad, or in some crazy movie. Either way, it was by far one of the craziest, most memorable moments of this year. We all stood in the middle of Beijing Lu, cars flying around us, as we looked down each avenue to watch the city sky light up. As actual snow rained down on us, we rang in the year of the Tiger together.
Anyway, here I am, on the plane to my next big adventure. I'm currently on a plane from Guangzhou, China, to Bangkok, Thailand. Monty, James, Amy and myself are all off for a week in Thailand, spending two days in Bangkok, and three days in Phuket. Two days of cultural city touring, followed by three days doing absolutely NOTHING on the beach. I am sooooo excited!
The morning was off to a bit of a rough start. After staying up all night watching the Chinese New Years celebration, I ended up crashing around 3:30am. At 6:30, I jumped out of bed for a shower, some cereal and coffee, and a round of emails. At 8:50, we were out the door, ready to go. With plenty of time for our 11:45 flight, we arrived at the Pudong airport at exactly 9:45. We strolled up to the counter, asked for the China Southern Airline desk, only to be told that our flight was out of Hongqiao, not Pudong.
In a moment of panic, I ran out the door and jumped in the nearest taxi, yelling hongqiao and quickly in Chinese. About a month ago, Expedia.com had sent me an updated itinerary, which I had read through and hadn't noticed anything but a change in the return flight. Unfortunately, Expedia also changed my departure airport. Luckily, we arrived at Hongqiao at 10:30, whirled around the airport departures for awhile, and finally got through and onto our plane with a few minutes to spare. Chinese airports, specifically Hongqiao, is incredibly difficult to navigate. After being redirected to three different counters, we finally found a counter with about 5 people standing around, all doing nothing productive. In my new hybrid American-Chinese style, I marched up to the front of the counter, pointed at our departure time and started shoving our passports at various attendants. This actually worked great and we were on our way within minutes, while Chinese passengers looked on in amazement. Rule one of traveling as a student: NO CHECKED BAGGAGE. We all planned on two carry-on's, so despite our rather rough start, we are on the last leg of our journey with all baggage in tow.
What I've learned by traveling with my peers instead of my family is that things are not going to go perfectly. I have a tendency to micromanage my travel plans, thus I feel the need to take responsibility for every wrench in the plan. I've learned that not only can I not account for the element of surprise and/or fate, but that I it isn't my fault either. All I can do is make sure that I am well prepared and full of contingency plans. As James has reminded me a few times this morning, whatever is going to happen will happen, and all I can do is keep my extra-prepared backpack handy and try to roll with the punches.
I will put in a quick ode to Valentines Day:
Here, in China, no one celebrates Valentines Day. Noting the number of single girls in my house, this probably isn't such a bad thing. However,last night, we were all treated to a little love. When we all returned from watching the fireworks and watching the snow come down on Shanghai, there were chocolates and roses waiting for every girl. Every girl I saw was touched. It's cheesy, but just a rose and some chocolate makes the holiday worth it. I'll be bringing something back from Thailand for the boy who was sweet enough to make sure that every girl in our house felt a little bit special today :)
I was a little luckier. My Mom, who always goes the extra mile to make every holiday special for me and my family, sent a bag of goodies along with my Dad in January. A box of chocolate and cards are all I need, of course with a few sweet tee shirts too :) My family is always my first valentine. I miss them so much... and LOVE THEM!
More to come later, probably tomorrow. We land in Thailand at 5:30, so we'll be able to get to our hotel, get some dinner, and just chill tonight. This morning aside, I think it's the start of a great vacation :)
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