So by the time I’ve uploaded this, we will already have landed.  I’ll just be talking a little bit about the plane ride.

A year ago, I had no idea that I would be going to China after my freshman year of college.

We took a huge Boeing 777-200 plane from Chicago O’Hare, and surprisingly, it departed only slightly behind schedule.  I guess from what I've heard about ORD, the delays are usually much worse.  It’s probably the biggest plane I've ever been on, about 20 or 30 rows of 9 people, at least in Coach.  We had some problems with the entertainment system, so it doesn’t really look like we will be able to watch TV or anything on this flight, meaning we are left to our own devices for fun.  Luckily, I packed a deck of cards.  Should keep me busy. 

As soon as we took off, I set all my clocks forward 13 hours to account for the time difference and to help me get adjusted.  Right now, it’s about 10:00 AM in Beijing.  We’re landing at about 8:30 in the evening. 

There’s a little projector screen up front that displays information like altitude, ground speed, temperature, as well as a graphic which shows where the plane is in relation to the globe.  Not too long ago, we just started flying over Hudson Bay.  It was really cool, you could see where the land ends and the ice caps begin.  We should be flying close to the North Pole, and it will all go south from there.

For dinner, they had a choice between Lemon Chicken and rice and BBQ beef with Mac & Cheese.  I picked the Chicken.  Considering I’ve only ever had airplane food once before, I guess it was pretty okay.  There were several snacky things included with the meal as well, like crackers and “swiss” cheese (The first ingredient on the package was cheddar cheese.)  It might be a while before we eat again, so I’m saving them up for later.

It occurred to me after we had taken off that I hadn’t spoken to my grandma Weisshaar before we left, she was out of the house when I talked to grandpa.  I guess that I will have to call her from our hotel once we get there using Skype (I get 60 worldwide minutes a month with my college Office 365 subscription.)

So long for now!