The Beginning

Nothing clicked in my mind until I pulled up to the airport and went to step out. In my mind I was thinking "What on earth am I doing". As I stepped into the airport I had this feeling as if I were taking another step in the right way. As I was waiting for my first flight it still didn't hit me that I was about to fly to China for a month. The flight went quick, trying to find my way around JFK was terrible. They had no markings for connecting flights. After walking about a mile and taking a bus to another terminal , getting a new ticket and going through security again I finally found my gate. Sitting on my second flight is when it finally hit me, I was about to sit on an airplane for 15hours. The flight went by quickly, after waiting to go through customs for 45 minutes, I stood by luggage claim for a good 30minutes. This weird feeling in my gut kept saying "Yup, they lost your luggage", but I did not want to believe it. Sure enough, my luggage was lost. What a great way to start my adventure to China. 

My first night in China was tough, I was in a new place all by myself. I just laid there at night with a million horrible thoughts going through my mind. At one point I thought I was going to lose it, all it took was a few conversations to vent with my family and friends and I was doing better. 

Today is my first day in China, I do not stat work until tomorrow. After waking up, I still felt as if something was missing, I got news that they found my suitcase but it would not be there until midnight tonight. We went to the silk market and got a few things for me to wear. That night we went to a Chinese restaurant, everything went well other than the fact that I do not understand anyone. Sitting there trying to figure out what they are talking is quite comical and fun in some ways. Everything went well at dinner, the usual Chinese dishes until...this came out.

I will try many things, but this, I refuse. Maybe if they served it in a dish without the head or shell one may be able to trick me into trying it but this? Never! 

Also, a typhoon just missed Shanghai when I was there so it is a good and bad thing. Good thing because the typhoon did not hit Shanghai, bad because it still rained like crazy. On the bright side, the rain made up for a beautiful night in the streets of Shanghai.