Welcome to the SLCA China trip blog, and Day 1 account

Welcome to the SLCA 2019 China Trip Blog!! My name is Clay Raasch, and I hope to offer you a daily journal of our activities, with a few pictures sprinkled in, mostly taken by my daughter Abby, who served as team photographer (which is why she is absent from most of the pictures you'll see).
After more than our share of technological challenges, we're ready to publish our first blog post. I will post one day at a time, although I may post a few of these more frequently than daily, as I attempt to catch you up on our first several days. We will likely add more pictures at a later time.
Thanksgiving in July has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? So that will be the theme of my narrative of our trip to China. 


 Abby Kom, Abby Raasch, Caleb Little, Emily Wolfram, Jack Duclos, Lauren Myrlie, Maren Steffen
Nicole Mitzner, Seon Dittman, Zoe Birkholz, Ms. Kristin Lehmann, Clay Raasch

Day 1, Wed/Thurs, July 10-11 - Here’s a brief chronology of a very long and hectic first day. I was thankful that everyone made it to the MSP airport on time.  Long security line at the airport; I don’t remember seeing police canines there before, which was a nice distraction if not a delay. We met up with three SCLA parents at our gate, Josh Birkholz had a flight to Seattle so accompanied Zoe, Julie Maag and Kaitlyn on a trip, and Julie Lemke was working a gate at Delta, and relieved me of a set of car/house/office keys I had no business taking to China for two weeks. Thank you, Julie! 
We had a short layover in Chicago, enough time to grab a quick bite, then onto the United flight to Beijing.  It was a long westward flight, flying north over Hudson Bay, Northwest Territories, Alaska, then south over Siberia, Russia, and finally Beijing.  Ms. Lehmann advised us not to sleep much, so we could sleep well Thursday (China time, yep, we lost a day) night. The excitement was palpable, so I don’t think we needed much encouragement.  Three meals served on the plane, including breakfast at about midnight MSP time. 

Beijing airport was huge, modern, and warm temperature-wise. We were well coached by Ms. Lehmann, and customs went smoothly.  Weather was warm and humid amid hazy skies. A couple of early snags (e.g., misplaced phone, subway separation seemingly caused more anxiety for the chaperones than the separated), but eventually we met up with Jack, a Chinese friend, who greeted us and found us a ride to our hotel.
The students were thankful for wireless access, and having Ms. Lehmann as translator (this will surely be another recurring theme) at the hotel desk. The students had enough left in the tank to together for a spicy, and oh-so-affordable meal. 
I was thankful for and content with a cool air-conditioned room, a shower, and a comfy bed.
Stay tuned for Day 2.

Comments

  1. AnonymousJuly 16, 2019 at 8:21 AM

    Glad everyone made it there safely. Praying you all have a wonderful time there.

    ReplyDelete

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