Adventures in China: Day 1

[animosity_light]

Amazingly, Livejournal was one of those blog sites that China gave exception to when it came to the firewall.

So I have decided to use this as a way to log my days here.

This is my first trip to a different country alone. While technically I am accompanied by an office mate for most cases, I feel so very alone.

For several weeks I was worried and stressed about this solo trip. In fact about 2 days ago I actually got a headache from thinking about all of this and I went home early to rest. I decided to take a sick leave due to that.

So anyway, let's start with the moment I woke up today. I set my alarm around 6:30 but still got up around 7. I took a shower, had breakfast and then left for the airport.

My mother accompanied me, probably being that she must have felt that I was nervous, given that I will really be on my own.

I was pretty blank the whole time. I had felt some slight impact about the whole thing, but it was nothing at the point when I finally arrived at the airport. When I hugged my mom and said goodbye, I had to turn away because I was tearing up. I really hope she had not seen that. I really hope not.

So while I was entering the airport, I was all by myself. (Well except for the porter who my mother instructed to take my luggage to the check in counter)

I've traveled a lot in the past so while this was my first time to do this all by myself, the procedure was not exactly new to me. I now thank myself for watching my Mom countless times when we were traveling to different countries.

So let me write what I did step by step.

1. Went to the check-in counter to get my boarding pass. I needed my passport and my e-ticket to get this done. My mother told me that I should make sure to get the seats at the forward section of the plane and preferably at the aisle so it would be easy for me to get out when I landed. At the same time I should be filling up my departure card which I will hand over to immigration. I kept that in mind as I did exactly as I was told. except something happened that I didn't expect. I had expected the girl at the counter to ask me if there was a preference in the seating while I was filling up my departure card. Turns out that when I was halfway done with my card she had already given me a ticket, and that was done with. Er, oh well?
2. Pay airport tax before going to immigration. This was pretty straightforward. I already had cash prepared from cash-advancing, to which I did. There was barely a line, so this was easy to do. What was the long part was...
3. Getting through immigration - Locally, I never had this problem because I always took the airline that had the whole airport to themselves, so immigration was usually very fast. However, since I was at a different airport that had loads and loads of different airlines using only ONE immigration area, this kinda took a while. This kinda reminded me of the times I was in airlines abroad because this is when I experienced the long immigration wait. I didn't mind it too much I guess. Thankfully I still had prepaid on my phone to which I used to kill the time. I had all my documents ready and I was off to the next step!
4. Wait at the gate where you will board. - On the way to the boarding gate, I was all alone at the hallway when the radio suddenly boomed the song "All by myself". I found this quite amusing. When I got to the gate and sat down, waiting for my plane to arrive, I teared up once again. I can't really understand what was bothering me so bad. I guess I was scared at the thought that I was all on my own for a long period of time. I mean I like being independent but it is so much easier if you're familiar with the place. Even when I was already stable, the moment I heard my mother on my mobile phone I would start tearing up and feeling horrible. Thank God I brought my DS to calm myself down whenever she didn't call. And finally, after about an hour....is...
5.  Boarding the plane -
   I think out of all the steps I went through, this was the most calming step. I did tear up a bit when I sat down, but when the plane finally took off everything felt like I was at peace at last. I mean I was already up there! What more was there I could do?

So yeah, finally made it to China. I am typing in my hotel room as we speak. It's just me and my little boy. I was expecting to cry as I unpacked because I knew I was really all by myself and while I am with someone this will feel like a solo journey, I guess the fact that the internet makes it so much easier to talk to my Mom and friends makes it easier to cope with. I guess it did help that right after I got up I went straight to setting up my laptop and using the internet.
I had dinner with my office mate today, and that's when I realize that I really was alone. I didn't feel like I could be able to see him more than an office mate, which kinda sucks because in a country that doesn't speak English and you're pretty much by yourself, you gotta find any companion you can get. If there's any benefit to this is that he knows his way around here more than I do, and I can save up on taxi things and the like, but otherwise I would rather coop up in the hotel chatting with people.

That's really all I have to say for now, and I hope I do not cry tonight.