Disclaimer: The content in normal font is the original text from the journal I wrote on this trip when I was eleven, and my comments from current 22-year-old me has about younger me’s writing are italicized.
Day 2
At 4:30 AM, aunt tracy got me up and ready. I almost left my shampoo and conditioner at my aunt’s house. Because those aren’t replaceable. At 5:15 AM, my grandma came to take us to the airport. Gary was there too. Seriously where are all these people coming from? I feel like Tex Avery was just having a ball these couple of days. Aunt Tracy and I waited in line at the check-in for about 45 minutes. The trick to avoid this is to have flights at awful hours super early or super late when no one wants to deal with it..but youll be one of the few people there and don’t have to stand for ridiculous hours. Eh even if your flight is at a normal time, just get there way early and chill at the airport, talk to people, make connections even before anyone takes off. After we passed the security, we went to starbucks for breakfast. How did I survive this long without food? I had a café latte and a blueberry muffin. Our airline is Air Canada to Vancouver. I got headphones and listened to classical. I found out that the back of my gameboy battery cover broke, so when I play, it feels weird. I still have the gameboy, it still has no back, and I still occasionally play it. Warioland for the win. Aunt tracy taught me how to blow bubble gum, with regular gum. It was very hard and I only got one bubble. I still struggle with this skill regardless of the gum. For drink on the plane, I had ginger ale towards Canada. I still always have ginger ale on my flights. I played an activity card game with my aunt. We had lunch at the airport. I had a mocha latta chill and a shrimp tempura bowl from cinnabon. Cinnabon has tempura bowls? The tempura bowl was pretty much like a cup of noodle bowl. ah, there it is. It got soggy. It was pretty good actually. How low were my standards then? Oh, I almost forgot, I am still waiting for the plane to go to China. I am so excited already. Our flight is 10 hours and 50 minutes at an altitude of 30,000 feet. Good thing I was afraid of heights. For the first set of drinks I had Chinese tea. For the snack with the drink, we had Chinese trail mix. I am listening to classical again. The first movie I watched was “After the Sunset.” It is about two diamond thieves. I liked it. That’s all the description we get? Really? I will go back and watch it now because I am curious. For lunch-ish on the plane, I had a twinkie like dessert, what? gingerale for drink surprise, a salad that I didn’t eat also surprising, and a stirfried pork and noodle dish that I ate with chopsticks. I watched an episode of Taxi which was very funny. I also saw an episode of Alias. But of course it was adjusted so that kids can watch it. I had two more cups of tea and worked on my TIME magazine homework project for a little while. Awww how cute I cared about school haha at least enough to bring work on vacation. I am pretty sure the final project is still on the table at my mom’s house…I kind of want it but it is probably better off on that table than on the table at my place where it would end up. The next movie that was on was Sideways. For dinnerish I had a nasty pork and rice dish with a sauce. For dessert, I had a vanilla icecream cup and fruit. For drinks I had a coke. No gingerale? I had another cup of tea, but spilled most of it in my hair. Ughh! How? I am sooo taking a long shower tonight. At this time we have 1.5 hours until we land in Beijing. For snack, I had chicken flavored cup of noodle soup that we bought, and more tea. What? I could hardly resist it. It was so good. When we were landing, I saw the wall. I was assuming everyone who reads my journal to know which wall. The Berlin Wall, duh! We got off the plane and went into our hotel room at Jian Gou Garden Hotel. Our hotel in Beijing has an indoor pool, a beauty salon, a fitness area, gymnastics, games, and pretty much anything else you can think of. I started feeling sick so my aunt and I went down to the lobby to have a cappuchino to keep me awake for dinner when we meet the tour guide and the other tourists. Coffee is always the cure…let it be known. I am the only kid. When we sent an email to my mom and Gary, we found out that we had $200 of Japanese money, instead of Chinese. I mean…its close? So my aunt had to go to the atm for an exchange. We met our companions and our guide named Bo. We had a meeting before we went to dinner. I almost didn’t make it because I hadn’t slept for 26 hours. So coffee isn’t always the cure. That’s kind of disappointing. Buuuuut I will still drink it, she says as she holds a large vanilla bean doubleshot coffee and protein drink. It is currently 12:30AM but I don’t have work tomorrow and I set a goal to finish typing up my china journal by the end of the weekend. For dinner we had white rice, spicy lamb, delicious pork, and roast duck. We also had this lemon-sweet chicken which was quite tasty. All of the animals? I do remember liking the sauce that comes with the duck more than the duck itself. I haven’t had duck since then, but that was more because I became vegetarian less than a year later for a significant amount of years. For dessert, there was watermelon and for drink, I had jasmine tea. Watermelon as a dessert…you know? I am totally okay with this. We went back to our hotel, I took a shower and a bath. I thought I was tired. I got ready for bed because we will be getting a wake up call at 7:30AM. Good night to me. Finally! Oh so I AM writing to me…I know what my aunts name is. Sixth grade logic.
The World Unfiltered 