Our Trip: Day 2-1/2

So while I technically missed Day 2 (due largely in part to the 16 hours that vanished somewhere over the Pacific Ocean), I'm going to cheat and call this Day 2 since it's still Wednesday back where we started this adventure.  I meant to post last night while it was still Wednesday in Beijing, but, after 23 hours awake, I was seriously struggling to think straight (and to keep standing up :).

We had a short flight from SoCal to San Francisco.  (Yes, friends, I survived the tiny plane.)  Then we hopped on a 747 for a 12-1/2 hour marathon over the ocean.  All in the all, the flight went very well (United Economy and all).  I knew we were going to survive when the first movie on the schedule was Ice Age: Continental Drift.  My mom and Emma popped on their headphones, and the first hour-and-a-half flew by.

Funny story here...after about 15 minutes of intently watching Ice Age, Emma was happily curled up with a blanket and her lovey.  My mom suddenly turned to me and said, "This movie has a lot of music but not much action."  Ummmm...that'd be because Channel 8 was eighties music, not the Ice Age soundtrack.

Between Ice Age and the fact that a four-year-old can sleep very comfortably on the floor in front of the seats on a 747 (drop the tray tables and you've got a really cozy sleeping spot - just sayin'), we did pretty well for the first five or six hours of the flight.  About Hour 5, you're starting to think that you've accomplished something and traveled really far...then you realize that the really far you've traveled is about the same as the really far you have left to travel.  

With three hours left, we were all ready to get off the plane.  At that point I shoved my child under seats and told her GO TO SLEEP suggested that my sleepy girl take a short rest to help time pass more quickly.  We all fell asleep for a little bit and then we landed.

Our guide was waiting for us at the gigantic Beijing airport.  (We LOVE Ping.  He's awesome.)  He drove us to our hostel, where Li'l Miss and I had our first adventure in public potty-ing.  (She just had-to-go-right-that-second-before-we-could-check-in.)  There was a western-style toilet, but no TP.  Along the wall were three holes that I thought were Bidets. Not so much.  (I know, I know, three Bidets for one toilet is probably a bit excessive.  We're taking serious get-lag here.)   They were definitely squatties, and a young Chinese lady definitely came in and used one while Emma was finishing up. 

Our hostel is really cool.  (See, Heather, no worries.) It's right in the middle of an authentic Chinese neighborhood.  There are a bunch of young people here who very sweetly helped us drag in our pile of bags and laughed when Jeremy offered them a tip.  (Although I did hear a few muttered comments about the fact that we'd packed bricks.)  Everyone thinks Li'l Miss is a rockstar.  Possibly because we're the only crazy parents who choose a hostel when traveling internationally with a four-year-old.  

Our room is small, but clean and cute.  All three of us shared a king bed last night (which was oh-so-comfy), and my mom had a private single room.  Today we're off to explore downtown on our own.

I can't believe we woke up in China this morning.