I woke up at 2AM and couldn�t sleep. After getting ready, I left for the airport at 3:40AM. I arrived at the Nashville International Airport at 4AM. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15AM. I had been told to arrive at the airport 2 hours before departure for international flights. At 4AM no one was at the United Airlines ticket counter. By about 5:15AM someone finally arrived at the United Ticket counter. A line of ticket holders had already formed.
After talking to the ticket counter representative, I was slightly aggravated to find out that I had one too many pieces of carry on luggage. While dropping off my mom for her trip to Hawaii the week before, I had asked the United Airlines personnel how many pieces of carry on luggage I was allowed. They stated 2. Unfortunately there was a misunderstanding. Two pieces were allowed for domestic flights, while 1 piece was allowed for international flights.
I had a fairly uneventful flight from Nashville to Chicago. I was a little cold during the flight and the stewardess offered me a blanket without me even asking. They passed out surveys to all passengers. I gave them high marks on my survey.
The flight from Chicago to San Francisco was uneventful. I had a conversation with the lady sitting next to me. She was going to San Fran on business. She seemed interested in my trip to China.
At the San Francisco airport I called home. My mom had made it back from her week long trip to Hawaii and I was anxious to talk to her.
The trip from San Francisco to Shanghai lasted 13 hours. An older American couple sat next to me. After seeing there were 2 empty seats in the row in front, the man moved up front. The Chinese lady who was already up front was slightly aggravated that he was taking a seat in her row. Eventually she moved to a completely different row. The other lady who had been sharing a row with me moved up to the same row as her husband. This left me to have the row of 3 seats completely to myself.
Unfortunately during these long flights, I am unable to completely fall asleep. Usually I just dose for a few hours.
As we descended onto Shanghai, I could see ships in the ocean. The water was unusually brown
Customs was no problem. I had already purchased my Chinese VISA (an absolute requirement when visiting China). Basically the customs proceedure consisted of the customs official looking at my VISA and my Passport; doing some typing on the computer and then stamping it.
I then retrieved my luggage. I waited around to see my friend Mark, who was supposed to be at the airport. He wasn�t there. After waiting around for 15 minutes, I decided to get in line for exchanging currency. I met a nice American couple who was visiting their daughter who was studying in a Chinese city.
After a while, Mark and his friend Ruth showed up. They had been stuck in traffic. Mark suggested I exchange $500 since I�d be using some of this money to buy a plane ticket to Xi�an. I got the best rate from my traveler�s checks. The regular dollars got a poor exchange rate.
We got on a hotel bus for our trip to Shanghai from the Pudong Airport. The bus cost was 20 Yuan which was much cheaper than the 200 Yuan that a taxi cab would have cost. While on the long bus ride I showed Mark a recent Time Magazine which he seemed to show great interest in.
After we arrived Ruth caught another bus to her apartment. Mark suggested we eat at the Chinese equivalent of a Denny�s since it is open 24 hours. I had a sausage and eggs sunny side up. Try eating that with chopsticks � it�s impossible! Since the restaurant didn�t serve soft drinks, I went next door to the Lawsons convenient store to get a Sunkist.
We arrived at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade and got a room for me at the guesthouse. My room was completely furnished like any American hotel room. I had my own bathroom and 2 twin beds. Also there was a TV set and water cooler. Mark said the water in it was probably safe to drink, but it was probably stale.
I spent part of the time in Mark�s room discussing plans. While there, I tried to recharge my camera AA batteries on Mark�s power converter. I later found out that this probably blew out my battery recharger due to different voltage specifications.
While in Mark�s room, I did receive a phone call from a friend whom I had met during my last Chinese trip. Her name was Eva. She was a former student of Mark�s. She remembered me. She was anxious to see me again.
After getting unpacked I tried to sleep. After about an hour, I went to Mark�s room. I was feeling a bit homesick and needed someone to complain to. The week before my parents had been away in Hawaii. I hadn�t seen them for a week and knew I wouldn�t be seeing them for the next week and a half. Also just days before I had found out that a friend of mine had an inoperable brain tumor. Prior to my departure I had visited her frequently in the hospital. I was feeling a bit guilty taking a vacation while my friend was in the hospital. Mark assured me that I would have a good time in Shanghai and that I should make the most of it.