Ok, I haven’t written in this blog for a long time but I figure that now would be a good time to start again seeing as how I’m in China.

I left to come here on the 24th (yup my b-day) at 7am. I had a 5 hour flight to Vancouver on Air Canada and the damn airline gave me nothing to eat! Not even a snack. You had to pay if you wanted something. I had a window seat so I got to look outside a lot. It was really clear so I was able to see the great lakes as well as the rocky mountains! Anyway, I got to Vancouver and got myself a bagel at Tim Hortons and spent the rest of the time waiting for my flight that was at 1pm Vancouver time. It turned out to be a 4 hour wait but I didn’t mind. I did a little shoping and took a short nap.

I flew out of Vancouver on Air China. The flight wasa 11 hours long and the plane wasn’t all that nice. The good thing about it though was that they feed us non stop. Within the first 5 minutes I was already given a snack. After that we had two meals (Beef/rice and chicken/rice with a bunch of other things). I happened to be sitting beside this man from Quebec but originally from China. He was going home for a 3 month vacation. I think he must have talked to me for about 7 of the 11 hours! He really liked to talk… even when I was trying to sleep. At one point during the flight he woke me up to look out the window. We were flying over feilds of ice mountains. It was really amazing and I took several pictures. I hoping they will turn out nice and I’ll post them whenever I get a chance.

I arrived in Beijing at around 3pm China time (which was about 3am for me). It was a little confusing getting my luggage and finding my flight to Harbin but I managed to figure it out in the end. I had to wait another 3 hours for my flight to Harbin so I mostly just read and walked around the airport. I tried to get a cell phone but my Chinese skills were nill and the people selling the phone plans couldn’t speak English… so much for that.

Anyway, I got onto my final flight around 6:40pm and was really happy that the flight would only be about an hour and 20 minutes. The plane was really nice and clean and the staff were pleasant. I was given another dinner (I think I had 4 meals in all this day) and slept the rest of the time.

I finally got to Harbin at around 8:30pm and was met by two people from Highbird and Pawel! They gave me flowers and drove me to my apartment. The apartment itself is really nice. I’ve got a washroom, kitchen, two bedrooms and a balcony. I’ve als got a tv and washing machine (yay bonus). The building is not the nicest looking but I’ve gotten used to it now.

Pawel stayed over at my apartment the first night since his school is a bit far from where I live. I was really glad though because I was feeling quite a bit nervous being on my own in China. That night we walked a bit around the city and got some food. It was really quite with very few people around (or at least that was the impression I had at the time). That is sooo not Harbin though. There are tons of people and it is really lively during the day.

Ill end this entry here and tell you all more about what I’ve been doing here next time!