Day One - John Whiting

Ni Hao!  Although we have only been here for about 7-8 hours, China already seems amazing.  The plane ride ended up only being 13 and a half hours, but felt like much more.  After sleeping for about 6 hours, the next 7 were torture.  Unfortunately, the movie selections that were playing did not interest me.  Although I did have my iPhone, people to talk to, and magazines to read, I still felt like a giddy kid in the backseat of the car wondering, "Are we there yet?!  Are we there yet?!"  The one thing that made you a little happier on the plane was simply standing up for a few minutes.

The bus ride from the airport to the hotel was awesome.  We went down a street that resembles the high-class shops of Rodeo Drive and the bright lights of Time Square.  Our hotel is directly across the river from Hong Kong Island.  I lucked out and got my own room with a nice large King Size bed and a view of the islands sky line which looks great during the day but even better at night.  Every night at 8 pm there is a light show called the Symphony of Lights that is the worlds largest permanent light and sound show including more than 40 buildings on both sides of the harbor.  I got to catch a few minutes of it while we were getting our first taste of REAL Chinese food at the buffet.  My highlights were shark fin soup and birdsnest which is a super soft muffin like thing that is apparently made from bird spit and both are very expensive here in China and seen as a delicacy.  I also tried jellyfish, dragon fruit, a few other things I cannot really remember.

I cannot wait to see what the rest of the trip has in store for us!