2
Location: Beijing
Day 1. Wait what? Day 2 already? I guess that’s what happens when you fly to the other side of the world! Today was a busy day of travel, and the group is finally together. Micka and Ryan came first and hung out in the hotel with LongYun awaiting the rest of the group. Evan arrived with Anna, Grace, Olivia, Sonya, and Hallie and made great timing. The plane ended up arriving 45 minutes early, and immigration was a breeze. To add to that, all of their bags were on the belt and ready to go. And so there were 7. Only 5 more to go! Next in line to arrive were Marisa, Lucy, Chloe, and Ella. Soon after, Julian popped up in the lobby, and the 12 of us took up the entire front desk lobby area. The volume increased as everyone began socializing and getting to know the individuals that would be their family for the next few weeks. It was still light outside, and everyone ran up to take showers and got ready for dinner. Before dinner, we talked about what to expect during our time here, introduced the group and the staff (Evan, LongYun, Serena, and Kristine) and enjoyed a yummy variety of family-style Chinese dishes. We sat at 2 round tables with spinning centers and tried to figure out how to say “Lazy Susan” in Chinese. Everyone is fast asleep now so we’ll save our picture posting for tomorrow when the really cool stuff begins. It’s still hard to believe that we left yesterday and arrived today. Even harder to believe is that within 24 hours of arriving, we’ll be visiting one of the most iconic sites in the world! What could it be? What suspense… stay tuned…