Day One: Welcome to Canton!! (originally written on 6/22/14)

***Also meant to publish this way earlier since I had it ready on the 22nd! Thanks for always screwing with me, wifi...

Hello from China!!🇨🇳 

We are finally here, after a marathon of three plane rides, hours of waiting in various airports, very interesting airline food, and an excruciating delay in Beijing due to weather issues. Here's a summary: 

Day One

Basically, we flew from Boston to New York in the early morn after a rough 4:30 alarm, then to Beijing (14 hours of awkward naps, reading, and heavy use of my tv screen), and lastly from Beijing to Guangzhou. This was the 1st time I'd ever done so many flights in a row and it was rather awful. 

We got stuck in Beijing for awhile due to thunderstorm alerts there. The plane sat stubbornly for at least an hour while we napped, read, and glared at the window, willing the plane to move. The only good thing was that there weren't that many people on our flight, so some people stretched out and slept on the entire middle row...lucky. 

Finally, we landed in Guangzhou, where it was hot and muggy after just raining like crazy. Our aunt and cousin were waiting for us there; they had rented a van to transport us back to Shunde, the smaller region where my aunt lives. 

I chatted with my cousin in the back during the hour long ride. She's in her twenties and works for a kitchenware company that has international connections, so she gets to travel a lot. I was turning green with envy listening to her talk about her visits to Barcelona, Germany, Brazil, Korea, and Russia. She's seen Gaudi's work in Spain, visited Stonehenge, and much more. There's just too much to see and too little time! In the future, it'll definitely happen..

We got back to the house and it was essentially the same as what I remembered. My aunt, grandma, and cousin live in a three-story house with a very nice porch and terrace on the second and third floors. I feel like its unusual to have a house in the city with a gate and one-car garage, so I'm super thankful every time we come here to stay. This time, I have a room all to myself! Scoooore 😝 

We unpacked the numerous ginseng packs, pill bottles, and other gifts we brought for them before heading to bed. Finally- sleepy time! 

Leaving our beautiful Boston for a month! 

The Beijing airport! We had noodles there before getting on yet another flight. 

A view of the street that my aunts house is on

The living room area (other couches aren't present because I was too lazy to get up off the one I was sitting on 😒)