Operation Travel Bug Presents:

I am so dead tired!!!  Thus, I will just recap everything in one short paragraph and go sleep.  So, got on a plane at JFK as planned.  Took 14 hours to fly from New York to Shanghai, then waited for 4.5 hours to transfer to our flight to Beijing.  After delays and unbearable turbulence, we finally arrived at the hotel around 2:00PM China time.  That adds up for a total of approximately 24 hours before we arrived where we were supposed to be, and also 24 hours between when I got to shower again and brush my teeth! =[  (OMG, you have to see what this room looks like!  I wish I could live here…) But after we got here, it was just one nonstop fascination about the city after another.  As a group we went out for a dinner at a restaurant within The Rainbow Hotel, and then went to see a Peking Opera at the Liyuan Theatre.  Overall, it was a fun experience, but a lot to handle in one day.  Everyone looked like zombies at the end of the day.  And what really gives it away that you have done a lot in one day is when you start thinking that you’ve been around the same group of people for days or even weeks already, and of course when someone says “Russians” and your first thought is “Martians.”  I can’t believe we just arrived!  I have some pictures to post… but later on.  First of our Beijing treks tomorrow (see the Intinerary Page above for further details).  Right now, off to bed before my brain melts, resolidifies, and then implodes upon itself only to become food for the many many hungry bugs here. =|