Finally Here!!!

So, it's 8:00 pm here in Beijing, and Teej and I are setteling into our comfy room at the Red Wall Hotel. It has been a greuling journey thus far, to say the least. But alas, we have made it and now it's all China all the time. I'm just figuring out that the camra Dad sent with us and the cord to my laptop are incompatible. This means that the amazing photos TJ and I have taken so far will have to be inserted tomorrow.

Anyways, things got off to a bit of a rushed start this morning as TJ, taking after his big brother, found it really hard to rise out of bed. Even with our sleepy delays, we made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I guess I didn't consider the fact that yesterday morning was the opening Saturday of spring break. Let's just say the airport was an absolute madhouse. But, with all the built up karmic capital TJ and I have, we somehow found our way at the very front of the check in line. Which meant we could grab some breakfast grub at the TGIF in the airport. TJ took this opportunity to do some mad journaling.


As soon as TJ and I boarded the small shuttle plane on the runway and our butts hit the seats we passed out. Not waking until we landed in Chi-town, where we found out our flight had been delayed.


I decided that we were going to have plenty of time to sit and do nothing, what with the 14hr flight and all, so as long as we could walk around, we should.


Teej and I then proceeded to hike all the way across O'Hare to hunt down a slice of the elustrious "chicago style" pizza Teej new he had to have. With another hour or so until boarding, we found the longest "jetsons walkways" we could. We then syncronized our iPods to The Ramones' Blitzkreig Bop and punked out. Slam dancing all the way down the walkway, where we proceeded to run and jump off the end. Trying to see how far we could get, oblivous to the looks of disdain from passers by.

The flight was tiresome to say the least. Especially rocking the middle seat while weighing in at a cold 270. Teej got a good amount of sleep, but his face read that it was pretty hard on him. I on the other hand, couldn't get a wink. But, the flight seemed to go by pretty quickly. I think it was the fact that I watched: Mary Antoinette, The Prestige, Karate Kid, and It Could Happen to You.

Anyways, our tour guide, Miko, is awesome. She took us to this awesome little restaraunt and fed us well then sent us up to bed with full tummys and heavy eyes. It was so cool because instead of taking us to some little torist outfit, the guide pulled the bus over on this major street and told us we were getting out here and that it was about a ten minute walk to the restaraunt. We then wove in and out of a system of allys that has been developing for mellinia.


It was so cool that our first taste of Beijing was the neigborhood were regular people lived. There were kids playing on playground equipment, people cooking right on the sided of the street and a million bicyclists. It was such a wonderful walk. The restaraunt was pretty amazing also. There was some pretty random dishes.

The adults all seemed pretty down to give stuff a whirrl, while the kids mostly ate rice. I decided to just go for it and if they put it out there I was going to eat it. There was some stuff I totally loved that I usually wouldn't have eaten. They had this dish that was sauteed bean sprouts. Holy cow, it was the bomb. Well, enough for today. We'll put up pictures tomorrow. BTW, TJ just took a shower and laid down. It was less than 10 seconds after his head hit the pillow that he was lights out.

Much Love,

Joe