Leave for China

The Belmont Chorale, a fifty-six voice classical choir, left for Beijing, China on Monday, May 14, the day after Mother's Day. I got to see my parents, they came to the airport with me that day. It was an early morning that started at 3:00am. We loaded up the buses at 4:30am and set off for the airport. There we ate, slept, played cards and did whatever else to take up the time until our 8:40am flight.

Our first flight took us to Washington and then we were off to China on a thirteen-hour flight. Plane food - it wasn't as bad as people make it out to be. I thought it was pretty good. They were preparing us for our trip by filling us with chow mein, lo mein and other Chinese goodies.

My air buddy from Nashville to Washington was my choir buddy, Andrew. However on long trip I was blessed to sit by a very bright 4 year old named Evan and his family. His baby brother Bill was just as cute, but a little less cooperative. He didn't scream and wiggle too much during the trip, but he didn't take well to new people. Actually, both of them were well-behaved during the long trip. Evan and I talked for nearly two hours of the trip. He told me several stories about his friends at school and how he was so brave when he got his shots. Of course, he is a little boy so he giggled and said excuse me every time he burped, which was about every 5 minutes.

In this picture he had written his name with the pretzels we were given as a snack and had transformed into a pretzel monster. How cute, right!

After little Evan's stories began to circulate, I had to tell him that I needed to take a nappy nap. He tried to distract me with more stories, but then food came and he became exhausted after the meal any way. I slept a lot, thank the Lord! The time passed so fast.

I made the mistake of not hydrating enough on the ride there. I didn't understand why I was snifling and sneezing. It wasn't until later that I realized the problem. I certainly drank more the ride home and I was fine.

There is a thirteen hour time difference, so we left on Monday, May 14 and arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, May 15 around 12:30-1:00pm.