Day one...

Well we made it. I wont post too much today. We all fell asleep watching a movie and I just woke up (10pm Beijing) to turn out the lights. Its Dragon Boat Festival this weekend and Monday but there is not much celebration in Beijing. Apparently you need a river or something.

Anyway, the flight went Ok. It was 2 hours from St. Louis to Newerk NJ and then 12 1/2 hours from Newark to Beijing. Mina did really well until we got about half way into the second flight. She was so tired and just wouldnt go to sleep. I finally got her down with around 4 hours left but it was a struggle. The flight was smooth and its a nice plane but 12 hours is just about enough to be in a plane.

Denis our guide (he was one of our guides from the last time) met us at the airport and got us to the hotel. Its freezing in the rooms. I think I finally got it regulated enough to be somewhat comfortable. We gave Dennis the rest of the day off being it was Sunday. We went to the Care4 store down the street to pick up a few things. Care4 is the French version of walmart. Its a trip let me tell you. You can buy anything from wide screen TVs to fresh fish (live) to cloths. We got next to a fight where some woman hit another shopper with a mop. All we could do was laugh. We had no idea what it was all about. I was able to use my Chinese to buy us a stroller.

We are going to the Beijing Zoo tomorrow. They just shipped in 8 Panda's from the earthquake zone a few days ago. I believe it was more for the Olympic crowds than anything else. Im not sure what we will do on tuesday yet. We will leave on Wednesday to get Marissa. We will have a local guide there for that leg of the journey.

That's all for now. I will post more tomorrow. (and some Pictures...)