I made it to china. It took 4 airplanes and like 27 hours but I made it. The flight to Seattle took forever and we had a 5 hour layover once we got there. Thankfully Dr. Ceccoli got us into the delta skylounge. It was full of comfortable chairs and free snacks. we got on the plane around 8:05pm and waited. The captain called over the intercom and said that their HF rig was broken and needed to be fixed. A few minutes later he came on and said it would take an hour. At 11:30 he came on and said that they could not fix and we would have to wait for tomorrow. We hopped off of the plane and got hotel vouchers and meal tickets.

Because I did not check any bags I went straight to the hotel. It was a Doubletree Inn and was very nice. I got to bed around 1 and woke up in time to meet everyone in the lobby at ten. Our meal tickets were worth six dollars a piece, but the breakfast at the hotel was like 18. I ate a chocolate chip cookie and a two dollar banana from Starbucks for breakfast. When we got to the airport the line to check in was ridiculous. I accidentally got into the baggage line and waited for forty minutes. Then I figured it out and got into the boarding pass line. by the time we got through security it was around 12:50. I was stopped in the security line because of my razor. but they let me through after they saw that it didn't have a blade. We were supposed to board at 1:20 for our flight so I ran to the terminal and ate at a Sbarro. I figured that it was the last good pizza i would have for a while. I scarfed it down and ran to the gate.

When I got there every seat was packed, and I went the next gate to sit down. The day before I bought a book of Ken Ken puzzles to entertain myself with. I sat down and started on those. I soon heard an announcement over the intercom that said the the flight had been delayed till 3:30. The tail rudder was broken on that plane. I sat down and did some more puzzles. Dr. Ceccoli walked by and asked me if I had gotten the news about the flight. I said yes, not realizing that the flight had moved once again. After about half an hour i looked up and realized that there was nobody left at the gate the plane was supposed to depart from. I ran over there and talked to a tech. He told me that the gate that the flight had moved to. A lady that I met at the delta sky lounge had been waiting at the next gate over with me. I told her and we went to the correct gate. When we got on the plane, the lady gave me her first class passenger toiletry kit in thanks for helping her find the plane. It had an eyeshade and a toothbrush in it. They came in handy on the fifteen hour flight. When we landed the first thing I noticed was the smog. There is this heavy haze that hangs over everything. It obscures the tops of buildings and limits visibility. When we got off the plane I went to the restroom and had my first culture shock. An asian toilet. It was bizare seeing one. Not pictured is the maintenence guy who walked in just as I took the photo. It was really awkward. Next we met some guys from tianjin normal including Dr. Ceccoli's friend Stone. He'll be doing his senior year at Christian Brothers next year. We got on a bus and took the four hour ride into Tianjin.

KFC is really popular in china and we encountered proof of this on the bus ride. A Three story KFC!
When we finally got to tianjin normal university we checked in and got assigned rooms. I was the odd one out so i got assigned a room with an american student. I have no idea who he is. I've been here 3 days and haven't seen him. He's very tidy. All his stuff is arranged neatly in the room. He even left his toothbrush. I think he went out for a night on the town and never came back.

I came all the way to China and the first thing i do is eat American food. That night around 12:30 we went to the atm and then to McDonalds. I ordered a big mac fries and coke. It tasted almost exactly the same as it does in america. the burger was a little saltier an the fries weren't salted. The coke is better because they do not use corn syrup here.

After McDonalds I wanted to buy a bottle of water. The water that comes out of the faucet is non potable so we have to use bottle water if we are going to ingest it. We went across the street to this restaurant and walked in. They had a cooler next to the bar full of drinks. We walked right up and grabbed a bottle. It cause quite a commotion. All the men jumped up from the bar and the waitreses ran up to us. Apparently, in china you have to ask a waiter to get a drink for you out of the cooler. IF you do it yourself they assume that you are stealing. luckily we pulled out our money and that seemed to calm everyone down. We paid and got out of there.