Home again, home again

Well, I've had a wonderful visit back to the states. Ryan and Karen had a beautiful wedding and, try as we might, we 3 bedraggled Brelands could not detract from its splendor. Christmas was equally as majestic and perhaps a little more crowded, as we fit over 20 people in the house in Decatur for fun and festivities. Then I proceeded to Nashville for a few days to visit with some old friends and ring in the new year. It was great to see so many friends and family together while we were back. I could not have asked for a better gift. As we were making preparations for the return, Luke and Kat decided they hadn't had enough Mexican food, and elected to stay for another week, which meant fun for Finn alone in China! Having almost no knowledge of the Chinese language, and about 3 days of travel time ahead of me, this was shaping up to be a fun event. I'll give you a rundown of what its like to travel to China all by your lonesome.

DAY 1:
5:00 AM- Arrived at Nashville airport only to be told that my flight to Newark has been cancelled. After much typing, airline attendant tells me that I will switch flights, going now through Chicago. Flight leaves Nashville at 9:30
5:30 AM- went back to take a nap at the hotel
9:30AM- said goodbye to Mom and Chris and boarded Plane to Chicago
12:10PM- Landed in snowy Chicago and rane Home Alone 2 style through the airport to catch the 12:30 flight to Beijing
12:25PM- was told that the flight to Beijing would be delayed until 4:00 PM
4:00PM- Was told that flight to Beijing would be delayed until 6:00 PM
4:30PM- Had a strange conversation with an ex-military guy and a bartender who was convinced that the US military could control the weather.
7:30- Finally departed for Beijing

DAY 2:
Skipped due to international date line

DAY 3:
12:20 AM- Landed in Beijing
12:40 AM- Got offered a taxi ride for 250 kuai. Attempted to barter down to 75 kuai and got laughed at.
12:45 AM- Tried my luck with a metered taxi outside...resulted in a 50 kuai taxi ride. Nice.
1:30 AM- After a drive-by ticket/ink swap with Andrew, arrived at Beijing train station to wait for the 3:30 train to Shiyan.
3:30AM- Boarded 26 hour sleeper train to Shiyan.
6:00 PM- Got offered snacks by a little Chinese boy.
6:30 PM- Got my book stolen by a little Chinese boy.
6:45 PM- Read two pages of said book out loud in English to a little Chinese boy.
6:46 PM- got a very funny look from a little Chinese boy.
9:00 PM- Went to sleep

DAY 4:
4:00AM: Got woken up by the train-ticket-giver-man
5:00 AM: disembarked in Shiyan
5:20 AM: arrived at the bottom of 7 flights of stairs with 80 pounds of luggage. Booooo
6:00 AM: Passed out in Chinese bed.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Well it certainly was an interesting feeling, rolling into a Chinese city at 5:00 in the morning and thinking, "ahh, I'm home". It is nice to be back in Shiyan. Today I ate at my favorite noodle place and watched Die Hard 3...then slept. It was a pretty productive day, to say the least. Well....all you folks back home should know that I arrived safely, and am alive and well. Those of you in China should know that I'm back and looking forward to some vacationing, China style! I suppose thats enough for tonight. You all should know that IF I had made a new years resolution, it probably be to blog more frequently. But since I didn't, I'm not sure what you should expect ;-)

Peace,
Finn