Allison writes....

After 26 hours of travel we have finally arrived in Chengdu.  The day started off with everyone meeting at the Ithaca airport at 8:15 am for a 9:45 flight in to Newark.  Everyone was excited and as the group said goodbye to their families we all walked through security and started off the trip.  The flight to Newark was around an hour and that was my first time on a very tiny propeller jet.  Getting in to Newark was a pretty easy check in and soon we all boarded the plane that would take us across the Globe.

The plane was huge and very well equipped for a twelve and a half hour flight.  Each seat had their own personal touch screen TV  with over three hundred movies, TV shows, music and interactive games.  It was enough to keep anyone busy.  The flight was a long one but soon enough we were Beijing.  The country has taken extreme precautions on containing the swine flu and being a flight from the United States we were closely examined.  Before any one even left the plane everyone’s temperature was taken and three of our girls who had coughs were quarantined and further examined for about 20 minutes.  You have to respect the country’s concern for there citizens but I did find the whole process very entertaining. 

When we first arrived it really didn’t feel all that different from a large airport in New York, except for all the Chinese characters of course and we had to take a bus to terminal 3, where we would catch our flight to Chengdu.  While checking in there was a group of Chinese people standing in front of our group taking pictures.  At first we tried to get out of the background of the photos but we soon realized that we were purposely being put there.  One of our girls is very blonde and once she agreed to take a picture with a woman, then there was people surrounding her and taking pictures with her.  It was very funny to watch and it was a different view because I have not really traveled all that much and am not used to being a foreigner.  The people here are all very, very kind and seem to want to know us. 

In the Beijing airport we had a five-hour layover and decided to sit and eat.  I ordered my first real meal in China.  It was a rice and vegetable dish that came in a sizzling hot dish with a raw egg on top.  I was told to stir quickly so that the rice on the bottom didn’t burn and as I did the hot dish cooked the meal and was delicious.  The flight to Chengdu was only about two and a half hours most of which I spent sleeping.  We were all pretty exhausted from the long day of travel.  In Chengdu we were met by a bus and two students that are in the English Department at the Chengdu Sports University.  I talked with a 22 year old named Starry.  He was very nice and invited us all to the English Drama Festival that will happen tomorrow night.  It was dark when we finally reached the campus but as far as I can tell it is beautiful and I am very, very excited to explore it tomorrow.