9/3/16: It Begins

1.     9/3/16.

a.     Darkness surrounds me. Beyond that, a cushion of air, chilled below -70 F. Beneath me, emptiness, then endless sea.

b.     Yes, I’m en route across the vast Pacific to China! If you’re reading this log, it has come to you through the Great Firewall via WeChat, posted to my Blogger account through my proxy server (parents J).

c.      This leg of the journey has been uneventful. Woke up early to assemble all my things—gifts for Xin’s family, first aid stuff, etc. and pack it away. Said goodbye to M, dropped off I at soccer, and headed to SeaTac with Mom and Dad. On the way there, read the Wiki page on Chongqing with Dad. It’s one of those “confluence of two rivers” cities. Somewhere between 18 and 30 million people, depending on which metropolitan area you consider. In the Szechuan province—lots of spicy food!

d.     Get to the airport, breeze through security, grab lunch (ironically, Chinese food, hey, for contrast J). As I’m getting my visa checked at the Delta desk, inquire after Ming, Xin’s Delta contact. Turns out I’m talking to her! And, she upgrades my seat to Comfort Plus, which means I have a ton of leg room J. The plane is nearly empty (figure that Dad?! Cheap and low-volume?), and I have an aisle seat next to an empty(!) window seat.

e.     Read a little bit of this academic history of China, which has a great description of how the pictograms evolved.

f.      Sleep for an hour and a half. Miss dinner, so walk to the back of the plane and pick up a tray.

g.     Watch a movie I’ve clipped off youtube, Chinese but subbed in English, called A Chinese Ghost Story. It was well reviewed but pretty terrible J Entertaining in its terribleness though. Wonder if it was 70s?

h.     Pull out my phone and start going through basic Chinese flashcards. I can count to 10 now in Chinese! Cross check words with my sweet Pleco chinese dictionary app. Feels awesome being questionably productive—the eternalism of constant learning still has a hold on me.

i.       Receive and eat a delicious snack sandwich.

j.       Write this log, listening to Alex’s playlist, classic journal-writing music.