Last week I returned to my favorite mode of transportation: the Chinese train. Any of you who have traveled in China by train will understand what I mean and must certainly have your own stories to share as well. So here are a few entertaining thoughts from my train trip to and from Changchun, China, a wonderful city about 3 hours by regular train and 4 1/2 hours by slow train from where I live.
First, no train trip is complete without the awesome period of waiting at the station beforehand. Perhaps Chinese people don't see the joy in this period of time, but for any of us non-Asian foreigners, this part is always adventuresome. Especially when traveling with a group of 30+ foreigners. So our train out was to leave at 3:48 p.m. Since security is nearly non-existent at Chinese train stations, it's usually safe to arrive at the station about 20-30 minutes before departure... and even then you may have to sit around a while. But we had a big group, and a group not particularly known for its promptness, so we were told to meet at the station at 2 p.m. Fair enough. Thankfully, it was a beautiful (read: hot and muggy, but at least not raining) day, so we could hang around out front of the station to greet everyone as they trickled in. (Impressively, the last one of our group showed up at 3:20... no running to catch the train!) Big group of white and black foreigners standing outside the train station? Definitely the center of everybody's attention. Also, the center of the cell phone cameras' focus. I'm half expecting to some day travel out to a small town or village in the middle of nowhere China and find my picture on people's walls or on advertisements. But we played along, even smiling and posing for a few pictures. And starting up conversations that we may or may not be able to finish because of our limited Chinese ability. Ah, the joy of being a superstar.
The train station experience before the trip home, however, was even more entertaining. People from our group were just trickling out of the hotel and grabbing taxis together to the train station, so I got in a taxi with three others and off we went. We were having a great conversation with the driver as well as sharing with each other about the great things that we had experienced during our time in Changchun. We even got the driver to plug our mp3 player, playing P&W music, into his car's stereo system so we could all listen to it -- including him. Pretty fun! But I started to get a little nervous when we passed right by the train station without even slowing down. Where on earth are we going? Finally, the driver stopped on what seems like a little side street, with no clear indication of where we were or why we were there, except that he said we had arrived. What? Arrived where? There were little convenience stores and restaurants along the street, but definitely not a train station! But he patiently pointed to a little alley on the other side of the street and told us to go in there. Sure enough, there was a little sign that read Train Station Waiting Room and had an arrow pointing in. Turns out our driver knew the back way into the lowest-end waiting room, which was ours since we were taking the slow train home. So not only were we two white girls, an Indian, and an African walking together on the streets in China, about to take a train far below most foreigners' standards, but we were heading to the worst of the waiting rooms and taking the workers' route to get there. Quite an entertaining site we must have made. At least, all the workers taking that route certainly thought so!
Yet the fun of waiting at the station must come to an end when the train is finally about to arrive. Theoretically, the Chinese have the system all figured out and timed exactly to know when they need to open the gates for people to start going out to the platform so they can all get on during the short window of opportunity while the train is stopped. Theoretically. Unfortunately for us, we were nearer the end of the crowd of people going through the gates when we were heading home so by the time we got through, all the security people started blowing their whistles and telling us to hurry up. Also unfortunately, the gate put us out at car #16 and we were sitting in car #3. Of course, you can only get on at the door of your own car. So while we weren't late in arriving at the station, we definitely did have to run to make the train. Amazingly enough, though, we all made it on. And I think by the time we reached our destination, we had all regained our normal breathing patterns, too. :)
On the train ride up to Shenyang, a group of six of us decided to play Uno (the card game). Now the three Americans in this group all knew how to play, although each with slightly different house rules. But we had the great fun and privilege - and challenge! - of teaching the Africans. Perhaps the funniest quote from the train ride up: "Who knew playing Uno cross-culturally could be so hard?"
The trip home had a different feel. One of the Ghanaian guys managed to have his guitar out on the train (which is impressive when so many "no seat" tickets had been sold... meaning people just stand in the aisles the entire way), so we started up a great P&W jam session. I absolutely love the pick-up P&W with the Africans here, but it was definitely a new experience to have that on the train! I'm pretty sure the entire car was standing up and looking at us, trying to figure out why there were so many foreigners on their train, much less why we were singing. But nobody seemed bothered, and in fact we got a lot of smiles and support. Not only were we occupied by giving Him glory, but I think we managed to entertain a lot of other people too!
Ah, trains. I'm already back from my trip to Changchun, but I'm certainly looking forward to the next opportunity to take a train here in China!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
a picture is worth a thousand words...
... so this post must be worth several thousand words. I thought I'd save you and me both time by posting some pictures rather than typing out all the thousands of words. :)1. I had to laugh the first time I saw the "2 kuai" store near my apartment. Something like a dollar store, except that 2 kuai is only 29 cents. But I REALLY had to laugh when I saw that the 2 kuai store had been one-upped... here's the 1 kuai store!!
2. Pick-up game of basketball/keep-away with the kids in the complex. I live through the door behind my roommate's shoulder.
3. Wedding! Cameroonian groom, Chinese bride, and American pastor.
4. At my friend's graduation from the Medical University. Definitely a cross-cultural experience.
Ah, China
It has come out of my mouth countless times in the two weeks I've been here. "Ah, China."
This is a country that is developing and changing rapidly, so eleven months makes a big difference. The statistic is apparently 400 new cars on the road every day in the city of Shenyang alone. Sure, it's a city of 8 million people or so… but 400 new cars a day?! Times eleven months of being gone, and it's something like 132 thousand more cars on the roads now than when I left. Needless to say, traffic has gotten significantly worse. Significantly.
Ah, China.
Another change I noticed upon coming back: oreos with green cream are available at the average convenience store now! One of my friends and I used to make trips all the way across the city to the one store that sold mint-flavored oreos, because they were so good yet so hard to find, so I was excited to see the green packages all over the place when I got back. Finally, mint making in-roads into the Asian tastebud! Or so I thought… I decided to splurge and pick up one of these nice packages of green cream oreos. Never thought to actually read the label before making the purchase. I definitely got home not to mint-flavored oreos but to matcha-flavored oreos. Matcha, that incredibly potent green tea powder from Japan that can be used to flavor ice cream or bubble teas, is delicious in the right context. Oreos, when I'm expecting then to be minty, is not the right context.
Ah, China.
Turns out matcha-flavored Sprite is not the right context either. Another new item failed.
Ah, China.
I was having lunch with my Ghanaian brother the other day and was telling him about the place I'm currently living. Last time I was here, he and I were in the same building – the "home for foreign friends" at the university. The dorm has adopted some pretty ridiculous rules, so he has actually moved out into his own place off campus. And I've been to his place; it's pretty nice. It's a new complex, with everything that means: beautiful façade of a building, nice landscaping on the grounds, etc. These new complexes are going up everywhere, but it's only the growing middle class who can move in to these comparatively expensive places. So I told him about where I am and how much I am enjoying the authenticity of my experience living not in a dorm for foreigners or even in one of these new, middle-class complexes, but in a "real Chinese place," as I put it. "You know the kind of place I mean," I told him. "I have to step over piles of smelly garbage to get out of the complex. I love it!"
Ah, China.
But no experience living abroad is ever complete without the fun and adventure of grocery shopping – which, in many countries, is done in the farmers' market style of buying fresh produce on the streets, but unlike in the U.S., these street vendors are the cheapest way to go. An actual grocery store? Way too expensive and less flavor in the produce. So I was picking up some tomatoes and cucumbers from the street on the way home. Dodging the muddy puddles from the overflowed fish tanks, moving past the rows of raw meat, skipping over the baskets of every size and color of egg you could ever imagine… no big deal, until I almost tripped over the live chicken just wandering his way through the street with me. Not quite like shopping at Safeway!
Ah, China.
I love just about every minute of it.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
a whirlwind of fun
It is just now the beginning of Day #6 for me here in SY after arriving safely last Wednesday, but it has been a whirlwind of a few days! This journey has been all the fun of moving to a foreign country with the added bonus of already having an extensive network of friendships. So here's the relatively brief version of the first five days, which have already included both a graduation and a wedding!
Wednesday morning I landed, bought a sim card for my Chinese phone so I could figure out how to get to my new home, and hopped in a taxi. Being the experienced traveler I am in this city, I even knew to go upstairs and pick up a taxi that was just dropping people off -- they will use the meter rather than bartering with me (i.e. ripping me off) like the taxis that line up at the arrivals section. So I got myself into town for 67 kuai instead of the typical negotiated rate of 100 or more.
My incredibly generous friend R has allowed me to come live with her and her roommate A, and R was even there to help me lug my heavy suitcases up the five flights of stairs to her apartment. I obviously knew R and A before, and had been to their apartment, so needless to say I was quite surprised to find out they had moved into a larger place in the same complex. Pleasantly surprised, mind you, since the new place is on the 5th floor instead of the 6th, and has three bedrooms instead of the two at the old place. So I am incredibly blessed to have my own room in an apartment with two amazing girls.
Speaking of amazing girls, I have the best of both worlds in this situation. R is an American, so we can totally relate and understand each other with the various adjustments or complications of being an American living in China. A, on the other hand, is Chinese, and when R is not around even talks with me in Chinese! So it looks like I'll be able to improve my Chinese, learn to cook real Chinese food, and just understand this culture in a deeper way through living here. Couldn't ask for a better arrangement!
Okay, skipping over a lot of details... Wednesday evening R and I headed up to LiaoDa, my old university here in SY, for their midweek fellowship. I had called to get the info on the meeting, so two people knew I was coming, but it was so much fun to surprise everyone else! The best reaction? A guy enters the room, sees me, and exclaims "It's a miracle!" Reaction or no reaction, though, it was so good to be back in that place and see some old friends as well as meet some new.
Thursday I spent most of the day with a couple of Chinese (English speaking) friends of mine, a married couple. They treated me to a delicious meal with a big, fancy fish. Yum! It was a bit entertaining to me that they kept trying to get me to try acupuncture... I'm not sure what symptoms I'm supposed to be getting treated, but they kept telling me that it "really works!" and so obviously I should go. Don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon, but that's okay. :)
Friday I had the great joy of attending the graduation ceremony of two good friends from China Medical University. When I booked my tickets to come, I had assumed this graduation would have been in May or early June, so imagine my surprise and excitement to find out I would be here in time to go! On the down side, R and I dutifully arrived for the 10:00 a.m. ceremony, assuming that was the one we should attend. Turns out that one was all the speeches... more than a dozen speeches, all in Chinese (and formal Chinese, so I couldn't even understand it very well), for over an hour and a half. R literally fell asleep for a while. But it was all okay when we got to go down and see our friends after that ceremony, take a bunch of pictures, grab some lunch with several of them, and then be back for the 1:30 p.m. walking ceremony when the graduates actually got to walk across the stage and get their diploma. Good Chinese fashion, though: no names were called, but six people would go up at once and stand intermittently with the three important people on stage, pose for a picture, then walk off and let six more go on. And also in good Chinese fashion, nobody actually sat to watch the entire thing. It was just a picture opp. Once the first few rounds of people had gone through, everyone was up and mingling as the line for walking across the stage just continued to trickle through. Certainly made me glad the foreigners were the first group!
While the graduates and a few of their friends went off for a party that evening, R and I headed off for our regular Friday night meeting with people from the fellowship. It was such a blessing to be back, and again fun to see the surprise on people's faces when they saw me.
Saturday I spent all day with my "brother" from Ghana. After enjoying lunch at our favorite Muslim restaurant, he showed me a couple of the new hangout places near the university. I also got to meet his new girl and spend some time with a whole group of Africans. But I realized that the downside of living on the other side of town and having roommates is that I now have to pay a bit more attention to the time I leave to get home. So I missed out on the late-night African dinner (which was just starting to be cooked at 7:30 p.m.), but he promised to cook for me another day.
Finally, Sunday. Probably my favorite day of the week. I went alone to the Chinese fellowship I used to attend every week, and enjoyed it thoroughly. And to no surprise, the woman there who for whatever reason absolutely loves me was the first to see me and welcome me back. She always has new advice or health tips to give me, so yesterday she had a bottle of something to drink and made me take some. Not quite sure what it was, but it hasn't killed me yet anyway!
Usually after that fellowship I stick around in the same room to attend the English one, but this week the English fellowship was meeting at our Friday location at a hotel on the southern side of the city because we got to celebrate a wedding! A guy from Cameroon married a Chinese girl, so in order to have her family attend, we had to change the venue. But it was wonderful -- and so much fun! The first ever wedding at the international fellowship was a success even if there were a few hitches... such as the groom showing up an hour late and the rings not showing up until after the [first of several] closing[s]. As I told the groom later, it just means they will have plenty of stories to share and laugh about from their wedding day for years to come!
As R and I got home from the wedding last night, there were a bunch of kids from the apartment complex playing in the courtyard. We enjoyed a fun pick-up game of basketball with them. (Or perhaps it was really a game of keep-away, since there are no hoops for scoring.) Although this is my fourth time here in China, it's my first time living literally surrounded by Chinese people. R and I are the only foreigners in the complex (at least as far as I know). The kids, their parents, and everybody who passed by thought it was awesome to see two foreigners playing with them like that. I think I'm really going to enjoy living here and building relationships with my neighbors.
And so it is now Monday. Phew. My plans for today involve writing on my blog, going to the bank, and finding a store to buy some essentials... such as food. But then again, my plans for the past five days only involved trying to see people. Things always come up here. So we'll see what actually happens today!
[A brief aside: I have an impressive number of pictures already, given all these fun events. Once I can actually get on this website, I'll post some. With my current maneuverability online, I can only post script here on my blog. I also can't "accept" your comments to make them show up for everybody, but if you comment I do get them. So comment away!]
Wednesday morning I landed, bought a sim card for my Chinese phone so I could figure out how to get to my new home, and hopped in a taxi. Being the experienced traveler I am in this city, I even knew to go upstairs and pick up a taxi that was just dropping people off -- they will use the meter rather than bartering with me (i.e. ripping me off) like the taxis that line up at the arrivals section. So I got myself into town for 67 kuai instead of the typical negotiated rate of 100 or more.
My incredibly generous friend R has allowed me to come live with her and her roommate A, and R was even there to help me lug my heavy suitcases up the five flights of stairs to her apartment. I obviously knew R and A before, and had been to their apartment, so needless to say I was quite surprised to find out they had moved into a larger place in the same complex. Pleasantly surprised, mind you, since the new place is on the 5th floor instead of the 6th, and has three bedrooms instead of the two at the old place. So I am incredibly blessed to have my own room in an apartment with two amazing girls.
Speaking of amazing girls, I have the best of both worlds in this situation. R is an American, so we can totally relate and understand each other with the various adjustments or complications of being an American living in China. A, on the other hand, is Chinese, and when R is not around even talks with me in Chinese! So it looks like I'll be able to improve my Chinese, learn to cook real Chinese food, and just understand this culture in a deeper way through living here. Couldn't ask for a better arrangement!
Okay, skipping over a lot of details... Wednesday evening R and I headed up to LiaoDa, my old university here in SY, for their midweek fellowship. I had called to get the info on the meeting, so two people knew I was coming, but it was so much fun to surprise everyone else! The best reaction? A guy enters the room, sees me, and exclaims "It's a miracle!" Reaction or no reaction, though, it was so good to be back in that place and see some old friends as well as meet some new.
Thursday I spent most of the day with a couple of Chinese (English speaking) friends of mine, a married couple. They treated me to a delicious meal with a big, fancy fish. Yum! It was a bit entertaining to me that they kept trying to get me to try acupuncture... I'm not sure what symptoms I'm supposed to be getting treated, but they kept telling me that it "really works!" and so obviously I should go. Don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon, but that's okay. :)
Friday I had the great joy of attending the graduation ceremony of two good friends from China Medical University. When I booked my tickets to come, I had assumed this graduation would have been in May or early June, so imagine my surprise and excitement to find out I would be here in time to go! On the down side, R and I dutifully arrived for the 10:00 a.m. ceremony, assuming that was the one we should attend. Turns out that one was all the speeches... more than a dozen speeches, all in Chinese (and formal Chinese, so I couldn't even understand it very well), for over an hour and a half. R literally fell asleep for a while. But it was all okay when we got to go down and see our friends after that ceremony, take a bunch of pictures, grab some lunch with several of them, and then be back for the 1:30 p.m. walking ceremony when the graduates actually got to walk across the stage and get their diploma. Good Chinese fashion, though: no names were called, but six people would go up at once and stand intermittently with the three important people on stage, pose for a picture, then walk off and let six more go on. And also in good Chinese fashion, nobody actually sat to watch the entire thing. It was just a picture opp. Once the first few rounds of people had gone through, everyone was up and mingling as the line for walking across the stage just continued to trickle through. Certainly made me glad the foreigners were the first group!
While the graduates and a few of their friends went off for a party that evening, R and I headed off for our regular Friday night meeting with people from the fellowship. It was such a blessing to be back, and again fun to see the surprise on people's faces when they saw me.
Saturday I spent all day with my "brother" from Ghana. After enjoying lunch at our favorite Muslim restaurant, he showed me a couple of the new hangout places near the university. I also got to meet his new girl and spend some time with a whole group of Africans. But I realized that the downside of living on the other side of town and having roommates is that I now have to pay a bit more attention to the time I leave to get home. So I missed out on the late-night African dinner (which was just starting to be cooked at 7:30 p.m.), but he promised to cook for me another day.
Finally, Sunday. Probably my favorite day of the week. I went alone to the Chinese fellowship I used to attend every week, and enjoyed it thoroughly. And to no surprise, the woman there who for whatever reason absolutely loves me was the first to see me and welcome me back. She always has new advice or health tips to give me, so yesterday she had a bottle of something to drink and made me take some. Not quite sure what it was, but it hasn't killed me yet anyway!
Usually after that fellowship I stick around in the same room to attend the English one, but this week the English fellowship was meeting at our Friday location at a hotel on the southern side of the city because we got to celebrate a wedding! A guy from Cameroon married a Chinese girl, so in order to have her family attend, we had to change the venue. But it was wonderful -- and so much fun! The first ever wedding at the international fellowship was a success even if there were a few hitches... such as the groom showing up an hour late and the rings not showing up until after the [first of several] closing[s]. As I told the groom later, it just means they will have plenty of stories to share and laugh about from their wedding day for years to come!
As R and I got home from the wedding last night, there were a bunch of kids from the apartment complex playing in the courtyard. We enjoyed a fun pick-up game of basketball with them. (Or perhaps it was really a game of keep-away, since there are no hoops for scoring.) Although this is my fourth time here in China, it's my first time living literally surrounded by Chinese people. R and I are the only foreigners in the complex (at least as far as I know). The kids, their parents, and everybody who passed by thought it was awesome to see two foreigners playing with them like that. I think I'm really going to enjoy living here and building relationships with my neighbors.
And so it is now Monday. Phew. My plans for today involve writing on my blog, going to the bank, and finding a store to buy some essentials... such as food. But then again, my plans for the past five days only involved trying to see people. Things always come up here. So we'll see what actually happens today!
[A brief aside: I have an impressive number of pictures already, given all these fun events. Once I can actually get on this website, I'll post some. With my current maneuverability online, I can only post script here on my blog. I also can't "accept" your comments to make them show up for everybody, but if you comment I do get them. So comment away!]
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Korea
The first official post from China in this chapter of my blog! Welcome to China, everybody!
I have been here in Shenyang now for less than two days, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, but it has really struck me that my dad was right when he visited this city a year ago: China is a place of over-stimulation. So having been over-stimulated by everything that's happened since arriving here, and not knowing quite how to process things enough yet to write something coherent for you, I've decided to stop delaying on my blog and just tell you about my night in Korea while en route here.
But don't worry, you'll get to hear more about China itself soon enough.
My travel itinerary took me from Seattle directly to Seoul, South Korea, where I had a 14 hour overnight layover. Bright and early the next morning, I got on a second plane that flew directly into Shenyang. I've done this exact itinerary before, while en route to Shenyang two years ago, and that night in Korea made for a good story... For those of you who haven't heard that one, it involved getting on a bus to go to a hotel in the center of town, missing my stop since I know a grand total of 2 words in Korean (hello and thank you -- neither of which were the name of the stop I needed), and having the bus driver eventually stop the bus, come talk at me in a completely foreign language, look at my printed out reservation form with the address of the hotel, and walk me off the bus to grab me a taxi and tell the driver where to take me. Very kind of the nice bus driver, since I don't have any idea how I would have figured out how to get there otherwise!
But that's an old story. I have now officially spent not one but two nights in Korea, and this second one was far more exciting than the first! A friend from college, who I actually studied with in Beijing for one semester, is currently living in a city two hours from Seoul. When she heard I would be in Korea, she offered to take a train up to Seoul for the night to see me! Of course, no way I was going to turn something like that down!
Certainly, this girl is American and doesn't speak fluent Korean either, but she can get by just fine. So after meeting up in the airport (which involved having my name called across the loudspeaker! woot!), we took the subway out into town a ways and grabbed a delicious meal -- pieces of meat cooked at the table and then eaten wrapped in lettuce with garlic, onions, and a sauce of red pepper paste mixed with something else. Yum yum! Definitely beat the street food I managed to purchase for myself the first night I was in Korea, which I threw away after one bite because it was disgusting. Still don't know what that was, actually...
After dinner, we went to a jjimjjilbang or bathhouse. I have heard of this phenomenon in Korea but never expected to experience it since, again, I don't speak Korean. But it was wonderful! For 8,000 won ($7 or $8), we could shower, enjoy several different sauna rooms, sit in a variety of hot baths, and finally sleep for the night. Sure, the sleeping is on a mat on the floor in a room with other people sleeping, but that certainly beats any amount of sleep I might have gotten in the uncomfortable chairs at the airport! (And since I spent two years sleeping on the floor in DC, I felt quite at home.)
So it was the absolute best layover I have ever experienced. In fact, it didn't even feel like a layover. It was relaxing and refreshing to enjoy the saunas and spa, fun to sleep in a famed jjimjjilbang, and most of all incredibly encouraging to catch up with an old friend and have her be just as (or more) excited as me that I will be back in China for a while.
All that said, it was also great to get on that second plane to come back to China. As soon as my plane hit the ground in Shenyang, I was flooded with excitement and joy. It is wonderful to be back, and awesome that the journey over could be as encouraging and fun as it was!
I have been here in Shenyang now for less than two days, and I have enjoyed every minute of it, but it has really struck me that my dad was right when he visited this city a year ago: China is a place of over-stimulation. So having been over-stimulated by everything that's happened since arriving here, and not knowing quite how to process things enough yet to write something coherent for you, I've decided to stop delaying on my blog and just tell you about my night in Korea while en route here.
But don't worry, you'll get to hear more about China itself soon enough.
My travel itinerary took me from Seattle directly to Seoul, South Korea, where I had a 14 hour overnight layover. Bright and early the next morning, I got on a second plane that flew directly into Shenyang. I've done this exact itinerary before, while en route to Shenyang two years ago, and that night in Korea made for a good story... For those of you who haven't heard that one, it involved getting on a bus to go to a hotel in the center of town, missing my stop since I know a grand total of 2 words in Korean (hello and thank you -- neither of which were the name of the stop I needed), and having the bus driver eventually stop the bus, come talk at me in a completely foreign language, look at my printed out reservation form with the address of the hotel, and walk me off the bus to grab me a taxi and tell the driver where to take me. Very kind of the nice bus driver, since I don't have any idea how I would have figured out how to get there otherwise!
But that's an old story. I have now officially spent not one but two nights in Korea, and this second one was far more exciting than the first! A friend from college, who I actually studied with in Beijing for one semester, is currently living in a city two hours from Seoul. When she heard I would be in Korea, she offered to take a train up to Seoul for the night to see me! Of course, no way I was going to turn something like that down!
Certainly, this girl is American and doesn't speak fluent Korean either, but she can get by just fine. So after meeting up in the airport (which involved having my name called across the loudspeaker! woot!), we took the subway out into town a ways and grabbed a delicious meal -- pieces of meat cooked at the table and then eaten wrapped in lettuce with garlic, onions, and a sauce of red pepper paste mixed with something else. Yum yum! Definitely beat the street food I managed to purchase for myself the first night I was in Korea, which I threw away after one bite because it was disgusting. Still don't know what that was, actually...
After dinner, we went to a jjimjjilbang or bathhouse. I have heard of this phenomenon in Korea but never expected to experience it since, again, I don't speak Korean. But it was wonderful! For 8,000 won ($7 or $8), we could shower, enjoy several different sauna rooms, sit in a variety of hot baths, and finally sleep for the night. Sure, the sleeping is on a mat on the floor in a room with other people sleeping, but that certainly beats any amount of sleep I might have gotten in the uncomfortable chairs at the airport! (And since I spent two years sleeping on the floor in DC, I felt quite at home.)
So it was the absolute best layover I have ever experienced. In fact, it didn't even feel like a layover. It was relaxing and refreshing to enjoy the saunas and spa, fun to sleep in a famed jjimjjilbang, and most of all incredibly encouraging to catch up with an old friend and have her be just as (or more) excited as me that I will be back in China for a while.
All that said, it was also great to get on that second plane to come back to China. As soon as my plane hit the ground in Shenyang, I was flooded with excitement and joy. It is wonderful to be back, and awesome that the journey over could be as encouraging and fun as it was!
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