And We're Off!!!

After a 9.5-hour delay, the missing piece to the plane was restored and we were off to Los Angeles!  Mom says it was probably missing the pilot... Somehow I don't doubt it.  However, we did get free vouchers for lunch, dinner, and $200 towards our next flight with that same airline.
I landed in L.A. with only 2 hours to spare, RAN down to the international terminal, and.... got lost.  Apparently the departure floor is above the arrival floor and the elevators decided they didn't want to work.  I ran into another guy going on the same flight I was who helped me tremendously!  Shawn, who just graduated high school in Dallas and wants to go into TCU for International Business because it's his passion even though his dad wants him to become a doctor like he is but doesn't think he can do it because he has a very short attention span even though he gets A's on all his assignments in school without really studying but it's only because he pays attention in class due to the fact that its a topic he really enjoys, got me into the express line where we waited only 20 minutes rather than an hour.  He's pretty much awesome like that.
After the security checkpoint where we followed each other like a line of ants waiting to get our piece of the sugar pile, I ran again down to my terminal with less than a minute to spare before boarding!  5 bottles of water, 6 hours of sleep, 3 bus rides, 2 very emotional planes, an itchy allergic reaction, 2 swollen ankles, and 23 hours later : I am now in Beijing!!!
The bathrooms are something else, though.... that's for sure!  It's more of a hole in the ground with a slight cover on it that you have to step up onto in order to use.  The people have their own rhythm.  I don't know how they do it, but they manage to go around and over each other without offending or bumping into anything (except on the subway), which is really impressive.  Oh, and there's no such thing as personal space.  In a country with 1/5th of the population, you kind of have to expect that.
Unfortunately, due to the allergic reaction I got on my way here, I took some benadryl to get the swelling and red bumps on my arms/legs/neck to go down and passed out so hard I didn't hear the poundings on my door for dinner time and ended up missing the first course to our stay!  So... I can't tell you much about the food yet.  But no worries - that will come later tonight!!!

Missing Parts

As I anxiously await for my first leg of the trip to take off at from Kansas City to Los Angeles, I hear that there is a "part missing" from the plane and our flight is now DELAYED.

Some time later, all the passengers found out that the part is on its way from Milwaukee, but will not be arriving until at least 2:45pm.  This part also takes 3hrs to fix, apparently...  Meaning that my flight to L.A. will not actually be leaving until "some time between 6pm and 7:30pm with an arrival time around approximately 9:30pm."
That is, if the weather clears up.
My reaction: WHAT?!
My saving grace is the 12-hour layover that I scheduled to take in L.A.!  While I was supposed to arrive there by 11:20am,  I hope to now arrive with about two hours 'til by connecting flight to China.
Lesson Learned: Extended layovers are your friend.

Oops...

With 4 days left, I'm going through my lists:
Clothes - check!
Toiletries - check!
Laptop - check!
Things to do during layovers - check!
Mandarin phrase book - check!

I had this sneaking suspicion I'm going to forget something when my roommate walks in and says, "Aren't you supposed to also study on this study abroad trip?"  ...Oh yeah.

Kung Po Chicken

Here's the deal: I signed up to study in China for 28 days with my university.
Thinking I would learn the language, study the culture, save money by not going to Europe instead, and be a well-versed traveler by the time I finished I find myself realizing a bunch of things last minute.  For instance: I leave in 6 days and I don't know how to say "hello" or "good-bye" (much less, "kung po chicken, please!").  I know more about the food than I do the culture!  It's actually costing more money than if I studied in France or Italy due to the difficulty of finding asian-specific devices.  And as for the well-versed traveler part... Well, we'll see about that later.
As for now, I do know that I'm SUPER excited to be going not just out of the country, but on the exact opposite side of the Earth!  I'm sure more troubles will arrive in the future, but as for now I'm enjoying my last night of the American kind of Chinese food.  :)