Flight Over to China

The flight over was not nearly as eventful as I feared it might be. My mother ship suitcase was too heavy – by 10 pounds so I had to pull out some things from it and carry them on. So I had a heavy backpack and a heavy messenger bag to carry on. I wasn’t too excited about that, but it was better than having to throw stuff out or pay a fee. Total flight time was 17 hours and I had two layovers: a 5-hour one in Los Angeles and a 4-hour one in Seoul, South Korea. So total travel time was 26 hours and I arrived in China two days later (as in, I left Utah Tuesday night and arrived in China Thursday morning).

The "Big Juan" that took me over the Pacific Ocean

 I was a little worried about the layover in South Korea. Were the signs going to be in English? Or will people help me find my gate if not? I’m used to layovers being in the U.S. and then just following the picture of the suitcase after arriving in the foreign country that is my destination. To my amazement, the Seoul-Incheon International Airport was fabulously nice! Lovely bathrooms that were clean and nice. Everything was in English. And shops that rival the nicest malls in America – Cartier, Tiffany’s, Mulberry, Coach, etc. The Xi’an airport was a little bit different. They have one terminal that is older and not as nice, which is the one I flew into. I read the sign for claiming stuff in customs several times to make sure I wasn’t bringing any contraband into the country. Thankfully, Chinese customs only consisted of me putting my mother ship onto an x-ray/scanning machine and then I was Scott-free.

Sitting at my gate in the Seoul-Incheon International Airport

 My next scary moment was who was picking me up? I was told that a travel agent was going to hold my name on a sign and pick me up, but was it going to be some scary person that would kidnap me and turn me into a slave?! Thankfully, no. It was a woman about my same age named, Chen. She was our tour guide for the whole weekend! And she was wonderful. She and I ended up hanging out a lot together on Thursday as the rest of my BYU group was late coming into Xi’an due to a delayed departure.

As for jet lag, I didn’t really have it; or at least I didn’t get it very bad. I felt a little tired in the late afternoon after we picked up the BYU group, but I stayed awake, didn’t need a nap, and was able to go to bed and sleep at the normal hours and through the night. But! I didn’t escape the kankles (aka massively swollen ankles). It took two days to get rid of them. Wow.