I'm Melting Melting

So you think you know hot… you don't know anything until you've been to China, even Shanghai, which is kind of like going to the geographic equivalent of Sacramento of Canada+the States.  Just imagine this, you're walking down the street, and all of a sudden, a rain cloud appears over you and begins to pour rain.  You think, "well this is rather unfortunate," and you're trying desperately to dry yourself off, but it just keeps raining buckets. And then you get home and you want to take a shower, but all your clothes have stuck to you.  We left the room about 1.2 hours a day for a week straight.  We woke up at 8am and then stayed indoors until about 8pm when we dare to venture out for substance.  It was fun.  But I was just plum hot.  It was like being in a Hot Pot, but not fun, because you’re basically cooking instead of vegetables and animals.  Speaking of food, I’m a huge eater, I’m not gonna lie.  Even if I’m stuffed after a huge bowl of noodles... there’s always room for Oreos!  But let me tell you, in the heat, you really don’t want to eat.  I think we had one meal a day at most, plus one packet of crackers or chips, and at least 12 Hi-Chews.  Everyday.  For an entire week.  But for real, I honestly felt like the Wicked Witch of the West, except the water was like acid to her, and she never came back.

This is third day in a row having Ramen.  

The heat and humidity combined was a little scary.

There's No Place Like Hostel

In the months leading up to China and Aaron and I getting married, we decided that we should probably travel around China just a tad; because going over and staying holed up in Beijing seemed like a waste. We planned to go to Nanjing, Shanghai, and Zhenjiang before heading up to start school and do actual productive things. Starting in Shanghai seemed like a good idea, so we decided to fly into Shanghai and then just take a train up to Beijing after. But for some silly reason it was cheaper to fly to Beijing first, and then Shanghai after. This was slightly puzzling but who's to argue with cheaper tickets? We ended up finding out that the only flight we can take is one with a whopping 14 hours layover in Beijing. Yeah… that might have been a mistake. We basically sat on a folding chair for the whole 14 hours. Getting on the plane felt like heaven in comparison. And then when we finally got to the Hostel, it kind of felt too permanent; like wow, we're staying here for longer than 24 hours? I don't feel comfortable with a shower and a place where I can lay down and its still socially acceptable… Stay overnight at an airport? Check! And never to do it again. It was a good growing experience, but kind of one of those things that you never want to do again, and gives you permanent bragging rights to boot. The only thing that tops that is an almost equal amount of time in a train station on –if humanely possible–more uncomfortable chairs… Oh wait, we did that waiting for a train to Beijing… Call me crazy, but at least you know I'm adventurous.

(Just so you know those smiles are a little fake since we've 

been in the airport for around 8 hours by now)

Here are a couple pictures of the lobby in Shanghai

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, board your airplanes!

So today Aaron and I flew to China, no big deal. My mom drove us to Sea-Tac and we checked in at Hainan Airlines. Let's just say that Hainan has just earned a VERY loyal customer. Upon checking in we were informed that we had been upgraded to first class. What they basically did is say, "Hey have this $4,000 free voucher and fly on us." So instead of sitting ten hours with people coughing on us, and eating rice porridge, we sat in perfect sanitation while sipping apple juice that was brought on rounds. Needless to say it was a good experience, and before we had even taken off, Aaron said to me, "if we had money, we'd fly like this everywhere;" good thing we're poor college kids otherwise we might go crazy with first class tickets to nowhere.
I've never flown first class before, so this was a brand new experience. I had so much fun looking at all the stuff in first class, that I already kind of felt like a tourist; which to be honest was a little sad since the airplane was still on the runway. Another thing about flying first class, you board before everyone else; it was kind of an uncomfortable time in my life. I know that the airline people are trying to make our experience all nice because we paid extra money to sit in chairs that morph into beds. But in the front of my mind I wished we boarded last. My instincts were telling me that all the people walking past us into economy seating were secretly judging us. Like, "Not only do you have to go to China, but you have to go the most expensive way possible. And make us walk past you while you drink your dainty glasses of apple juice." Oh well, you only live once.