Xi'an! (backposted)
On Thursday morning I caught a 5:15am taxi to the Madison airport. From there I flew to Detroit. I had heard that someone else was also going to Xi'an on the same flight, and that it was an older guy, so I was trying to figure out who it was, but didn't see anyone familiar at the gate.
At Detroit, I had four hours to kill, so I wandered around and went on the train. The Detroit airport is a fascinating place where the terminal is super super super long (1 mile). So there is a train that goes inside, up near the ceiling. The two trains from different directions run on the same track and look like they're going to crash in the middle, but then one veers off and goes around a circle. It is very cool.
At the gate in Detroit, I finally located the other passenger heading to Xi'an: my own advisor. It turned out we had the same two starting flights, but he had a short connection in Xi'an and I had a long one. The flight from Detroit to Xi'an was about 13 hours long and pretty boring, although we did fly up over the arctic ice cap. It was also light the entire time, despite the fact that we left Thursday afternoon and arrived Friday afternoon (with a 12-hour time difference). But it was so bright out that we had to keep the shades on the windows closed.
In Xi'an I was glad I had a long connection, because I had to go through customs, collect my bag, go through security, recheck it, get a new boarding pass, and then go through security again. I had trouble understanding some of the airport workers and wished I knew Mandarin. I was a bit nervous since I couldn't get my debit card to work in the ATMs, and I was going to need cash to get from the Xi'an airport to the hotel. I got flustered at security because I didn't realize I needed to take out my ipad and work phone (in the US you can leave those in the bag), and I ended up leaving the ipad.. and work phone.. at the checkpoint. Luckily I noticed immediately and the guy came running out after me.
I eventually found my gate. There, I met someone carrying a poster tube and correctly guessed I'd see her at the conference. She turned out to work with my grad school officemate! We agreed to share a taxi, which made me a lot more at ease. I was pretty exhausted at this point, so I dozed off once I got on the plane. I woke up when I felt a bump and thought we had landed..... and then the plane took off. I now know that there were long delays at the Beijing airport due to a runway closure, so I'm not sure how long we waited -- I was just so tired at that point.
We got to Xi'an and then to the hotel without incident. The room was super nice! I managed to stay awake just long enough to take a shower, then fell fast asleep around midnight -- or 11am, Wisconsin time.
At Detroit, I had four hours to kill, so I wandered around and went on the train. The Detroit airport is a fascinating place where the terminal is super super super long (1 mile). So there is a train that goes inside, up near the ceiling. The two trains from different directions run on the same track and look like they're going to crash in the middle, but then one veers off and goes around a circle. It is very cool.
At the gate in Detroit, I finally located the other passenger heading to Xi'an: my own advisor. It turned out we had the same two starting flights, but he had a short connection in Xi'an and I had a long one. The flight from Detroit to Xi'an was about 13 hours long and pretty boring, although we did fly up over the arctic ice cap. It was also light the entire time, despite the fact that we left Thursday afternoon and arrived Friday afternoon (with a 12-hour time difference). But it was so bright out that we had to keep the shades on the windows closed.
In Xi'an I was glad I had a long connection, because I had to go through customs, collect my bag, go through security, recheck it, get a new boarding pass, and then go through security again. I had trouble understanding some of the airport workers and wished I knew Mandarin. I was a bit nervous since I couldn't get my debit card to work in the ATMs, and I was going to need cash to get from the Xi'an airport to the hotel. I got flustered at security because I didn't realize I needed to take out my ipad and work phone (in the US you can leave those in the bag), and I ended up leaving the ipad.. and work phone.. at the checkpoint. Luckily I noticed immediately and the guy came running out after me.
I eventually found my gate. There, I met someone carrying a poster tube and correctly guessed I'd see her at the conference. She turned out to work with my grad school officemate! We agreed to share a taxi, which made me a lot more at ease. I was pretty exhausted at this point, so I dozed off once I got on the plane. I woke up when I felt a bump and thought we had landed..... and then the plane took off. I now know that there were long delays at the Beijing airport due to a runway closure, so I'm not sure how long we waited -- I was just so tired at that point.
We got to Xi'an and then to the hotel without incident. The room was super nice! I managed to stay awake just long enough to take a shower, then fell fast asleep around midnight -- or 11am, Wisconsin time.