So I knew there would be some challenges with internet, but I had no idea it would be this tricky. There is free wifi at the hotel, but so far I have only been able to access email and nothing else. The pages just don't load. I can play my games okay, but I haven't been able to post from my blogger app. There is a way to email my posts in to my personal blogger email address, but I didn't think to look it up before I came to China and I can't get onto Blogger to find out what it is. They have computers to use for free downstairs in the lobby, but they are all in Chinese script and although I asked staff to change the language of the browser to English, they could not work out how to do this. Three different men tried to help me, and they even googled how to do it, but could not figure it out. I can google blogger, and it comes up with the search results but then I can't load any of the webpages in those results. Language will be a barrier for sure! I have emailed my sister to see if she can get into my account and find that address. Just had an email from her and she was able to upload my post about arriving here. I might have to get her to do that until I figure out how else I can do it myself. I think the Internet cafes in the city will be easier to use as most travellers who are not Chinese would want to click a browser button to change it to their language. I've always been able to do this in other countries - usually there is just a flag for countries and you just click the flag for your country and it will change to that language. Often English is associated with either a British Flag, or an American Flag. 

In any case, not the biggest deal. I'm on vacation and should just be enjoying being in China. I am pretty tired so might just lay down for most of the day and read while I'm waiting for Amber. Our current hotel is near the airport so not really into the city. I might go for a walk too, and hope I do not get lost!

Jude's first day in China (posted from an email to/by her sister)

HELLO READERS OF JUDE'S BLOG!!  She is having troubles with the internet and has asked me to make this post for her on her blog.  As usual, she has an adventure to share!.......Kimm




I have arrived...welcome to China!


What a day...always an adventure to travel internationally...so after heading tot eh airport on no sleep, I finally boarded my international flight to Hong Kong. We sat on the tarmack for an hour waiting to leave because it was so foggy...I still don't get that - they can remote control a robot on mars but can't leave an airport in the fog? So I began to panic a little because I only had 2 hours layover in HK. The flight was tiresome - crappy meals, and they ran out of the beef so had to take ither vegetarian or fish...gross. And no snacks to buy! The seats were cramped and of course there was a crying baby the whole way - wanted to stab a fork in my ears most of the time, but managed to plug in my earphones and crank the movies to drown the little bugger out. There should be soundproof chambers to lock the babies in on planes...after 10 hours of listening to it I was more than ready to get off the plane. 

With only 50 minutes to get fro gate 45 to 68 I booted it to gate 68, only to discover I went to Gate 68 Arrrivals, not departures...my first clue should have been seeing all the people movers running in the opposite direction, along with ALL of the people...so then I booted it back to the beginning of arrivals and headed to the TRANSFERS section where my dumb ass should have been heading. Had to go through another round of security and it's 4:30 by that point with my flight leaving at 5pm, so I was freaking out as I still had to go through security and then boot it to gate 68 which was about a km or more it seemed! I managed to make it to my gate as they were boarding the flight, thankfully!! I was ready to expire after dashing my own version of the amazing race through the airport. Had to dig out my puffer and mop off the sweat pouring off my big giant head. Thankfully I was not seated near any babies and actually sat next to a Chinese woman who lives in Sydney (AUS) and we had a very lovely and engaging chat the whole entire way. We exchanged our details and agreed to meet up again if we are in each other's cities. She was also interested in my blog, so will send her the address for that too. the food was much better on that flight, pork and rice. 

Then I landed in Beijing. I didn't get to see much of the city as we landed, as I was over the wing and so view was limited. Managed to get off easy enough, and sailed through customs - was a tense moment as they checked my passport - still worried about that 6 month thing, but he didn't bat an eye and stamped my passport and I was off. I didn't even have to wait at customs, which was a departure from EVERY OTHER TRIP. The dramas began after that...

So I had not really thought about how I was getting to the hotel. I booked a couple of nights right at the airport as I arrived the day before Amber. Was told that free shuttle buses leave from level 1 road. Go there, can't see a thing that resembles my shuttle and it's madness out there. An opportunistic taxi driver offers to take me but wants $480 yuan, whiich is about $80...I don't frigging think so buddy considering my hotel is at the airport and only cost me $48/night...I tell him to piss off and head inside again. I come in and try to work out how to use the phone, and whether I need a phoncard. Got a phonecard, not knowing if it was the right one was most of the info was in Mandarin of course...then found a free phone and called the hotel. Spoke to the hotel clerk who had almost no English...she told me to go to Gate 8 and see the shuttle with the logo on it. First or Fourth floor - couldn't make out what she was saying. I had already deduced it was not likely to be first, so went to the fourth and entered absolute mayhem - honking cars and dozens of shuttle buses and thousands of people...stopped and asked someone where my shuttle might be and was directed to keep looking, no English...so I kept looking and walked up and down the road outside the terminal with no luck. Found a shuttle driver who offered to call them and see what I need to do. He told me to stand right where I was and they would be here in 5 minutes. 90 minutes later, I'm a blubbering mess, tired as hell, not sure what the hell to do, and can't find anyone who speaks English. I don't want to leave my spot in case they show up, but in the end, a staff person saw me blubbering over my backpacks and sent me to the information desk, but couldn't tell me in English where she was sending me, so managed to coax me into the building where she showed me the big ? and said the workd English...okay, perfect, off I go. I speak to the gal there who does speak pretty good English and she calls my hotel to see where the shuttle will come. They told her they would be 20 minutes but would come right to the info desk to pick me up. Phew, crises averted. The guy arrived and said he had been circling the arrivals level for me for 2 hours...he was very happy to have found me he said, and even showed me a piece of paper he was holding with my name on it in black and white. I had been looking for a smaller white shuttle bus but theirs was a huge regular sied blue and beige bus with my hotel name on it in HUGE letters. I felt like a friggin tool of course. But we made our apologies and he welcomed me to China, and then we were off to my hotel. Not far from the hotel, we came across a fender bender that had just happened with a taxi that t-boned another car. It is no wonder - the driving and traffic is crazy! At least they drive on the right side of the road...

Made it to the hotel, checked in, got some snacks, and took a shower. Man I felt like a new person again. Had several emails with Amber as it's our only mode of communication for the moment as Facebook is not easily accessible in China, given it is banned. She is in Vancouver, awaiting her overseas flight later today. I'll head to the airport tomorrow and pick her up with the shuttle guys - hopefully with no dramas! 

Welcome to China...made it!

What Am I Doing Up This Early?

Here I sit at the Melbourne Airport, awaiting my first flight. This one will take me from Melbourne into Hong Kong and takes just about 10 hours. My sister was surprised that it would take that long, but when you think about it, Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere and China is in the northern hemisphere.  Beijing is in northern China, near Mongolia, so quite a ways away. It will be my first time flying south to north for such a distance. I've only ever flown east to west for great distances. 

In order to be here 3 hours prior to my flight as required, I had to be picked up by taxi at 4:00am. I have to say, the cabbie was right on time. I had no sooner arrived at the curb and he was pulling up - perfect timing. He then collected my details to be sure to pick me up when I return. As I was checking out my return details, I discovered a little issue - I knew I was flying back on Sunday 14th, but what I didn't know is I don't actually arrive back in Melbourne until 1:00pm on Monday 15th...oops! I had to send a quick text to my manager then to let him know not to expect me until Tuesday. I just hope I had nothing scheduled in for work...That's two little issues now. I also messed up a little on the departure date for my daughter and I. We are both leaving on the 29th, but she is leaving from Canada and crossing back over the date line, so doesn't actually arrive in Beijing until the 30th. Ooops...so I had to book a second night at the airport hotel so I can meet her at the airport easily. Not a big deal - I can certainly use the down time and possibly get orientated, pick up train passes, etc. I could also just sleep through in my own bed all day...after all, the next 15 days I'll be sharing my room with another person - my daughter. The last time we group slept was in San Francisco with 3 of my friends. We had two double beds and a single fold-away bed, all in the same room. Since my daughter had never met any of my friends, I had her sleep in the fold away and I shared with my soul sister, A. Not that we spent much time sleeping...after all, we were there for a music festival and it's bloody San Francisco!!!

I'm hoping we are both well enough by Saturday that there are no coughing or snorting issues. I became sick about 2 weeks ago after lending my phone to a youth I was working with and just didn't think to clean it off when I got it back...within a couple of days I was sick, as was his entire family. Then my daughter came down with a cold a few days ago, so she's been pounding back the orange juice, water, and just trying to rest as much as one can when preparing for an overseas trip. I struggled with it as I was so damn busy at work, I worked late every night this week and last week, some nights quite late, and I've been in by an hour or more early, just to get as much done as I could before I left. There was of course, a last minute crisis so I didn't get to leave on time today either, but my lovely team manager was happy to organize another worker to finish up the crisis job and I could get the hell out of the office before anything else happened. I still had to get Dundee's things together and take him over to the cat sitter, so finally left work at about 6:30pm. I packed up the kid; he meowed the entire way from Footscray to Fitzroy, but by the time I flung him in the door at the cat sitter's he had calmed some and was very interested in the house - there is a female kitty there. He didn't get to meet her as she was sleeping in a room with one of my friend's housemates, but I think it was more than enough that he could smell her everywhere and get used to her that way. There is potential for Dundee to move in when I head back to Canada next year, provided his vacation goes well and they don't try to kill one another! 

So here I sit at 5:55am in the Melbourne Airport. My flight to China leaves in less than two hours. I must go find a comfy seat and read for awhile. I've had some Hungry Jacks for breakfast, as I just couldn't wait until the flight gets in the air and they begin breakfast service - that's about 3 hours from now. I'll be ready for another breakfast by then!

Preparing for China

In just 6 days I'll be heading to China to meet up with my daughter. I haven't seen her in 2 years and cannot wait! We're both very excited about exploring China together. I've been to Asia before, but not China and my daughter has never been to Asia. We've had a few bumps along the way as we prepared to go, but everything seems to be falling into place and we're set to head out on Friday. She doesn't arrive until Saturday, which was a bit of a slip-up - thought I had us both arriving on the same day but turns out I had us both leaving on the same day, only with the time difference, I leave the day before her.

I have to say, it's a bit scary to be flying internationally when there has been 3 planes either blown up or disappear in the past year, but I try not to dwell on this too much. I reckon when my time comes, it comes and there will be little I can do about it. At least I'm not flying with any of the airlines involved in the 3 planes.

I cannot wait to get away from work for a few weeks with someone who does not work in the field so I don't even have to talk about work if I don't want to! It's been super busy and quite stressful at work lately with a few of my cases, and I just finished up a 4 day trial this past week, and spent about 4 hours on the stand myself. First time since 2005, which is quite a stretch! Turns out it was like riding a bike - no problem. I thought I might get stage fright but I was just fine. Phew.

Spring is just around the corner here and we had a very nice day today, with temps around 20C for the first time in months. Beijing weather is still quite hot yet, but I'm hoping it tapers before we get there as it is the end of summer there. I'd be happy with a nice 24C during the day and 15C at night. We'll see how close it gets to that. At least I'm not travelling with someone who hates A/C like when me and my homegirl F went to Cambodia. She would be rugged up in flannel jammies, hooded sweatshirt, socks, hat, and both my blanket and hers while I sweated it out in shorts and a tank top.

I bring Dundee over to a friend's house on Thursday night. They have another cat there, a female, so hopefully they will get along and he'll enjoy a little vacation of his own. She has a big house for him to explore, and a big yard full of trees with birds to watch. She may even consider taking him when I move back to Canada next year.

So my backpacks are all packed up, and I just have to survive the work week - fly out first thing Friday morning!