Arrival Day, July 8

We had a relatively quiet flight over, despite the free alcohol on the plane that I thought would rile up some of the other students. Everyone chose relative moderation and got some sleep. Three of us played cribbage for a bit, we had awful movie after awful movie on the plane screen, and I took lots of walks around the plane since I was too excited to sleep very long (and I'm usually a pro at sleeping for the length of plane flights.) United served us instant noodles, the first I've had on a flight. Overall, it went smoothly.

The airport immediately showed a few vital things about China: the Olympics really are on almost every sign and ad; Olympics volunteers are out en masse already--they were at some sort of "Validation Center" as well as all around the airport in pairs; and someone is always cleaning, or just about to clean, something. As we walked down the jetway, we saw about 15 uniformed men and women lined up and ready to board and clean the plane as soon as the last passenger deboarded.

The new wing of the Beijing airport was beautiful--huge, bright, and quiet. All the arriving flights didn't nearly fill the airport, and with the emptiness and high ceilings, it felt like we were in a ghost town. This feeling of ease and space ended as soon as we reached the passenger meeting area on the other side of customs--colors, noise, and crowds greeted us there. After the abrupt change to the crowded side of China, we met our liason from the university where we are staying. From there, we had a whirlwind of a time cramming bags in the storage under our bus and in some of the bus seats, riding to the university (no traffic at all on the roads at 3:30 p.m.), checking into our rooms, and taking a short guided tour of the campus.

Our liason helped some of us order dinner at a restaurant on campus, and I went to bed wondering if I could ever order the same dish again. I decided to be good and not skip brushing my teeth, even though I was so tired, I could barely focus my eyes on my toothbrush. I was almost done brushing before I even realized that I had used the tap water, definitely a no-no. Oops!