For as much as I love to travel, I hate it too.

June 6-7, 2010
I think I have been cursed with difficulty flying. I cannot remember the last time I had a smooth flight. One hour delay in Buffalo. Sweet. Finally make it to Chicago and have to trek across the ENTIRE airport to get to my terminal. I was about two minutes away from them giving my seat away. Then I make it to my seat, second last row, middle seat. *Sigh* The actual 14 hour flight did not seem that long. A little reading, a little moving watching, a little sleeping. Sat in a row with some really nice people. The gentleman next to me had kids my age so we chatted about college and jobs and traveling. The girl next to him was bit younger than me I think. She is going to be in Ulaanbaatar also working in a hospital. I got her email and we are going to try to meet up and do some sightseeing on the weekends. (Note: I do not know these people's names. I have a terrible habit of talking to people and not asking their names or if I do forgetting them instantly.) Finally made it to smoggy Beijing around 2:30 pm local time (2:30 am New York time). Again, another huge airport. Long line at immigration/customs but no troubles getting through. Gotta love the US passport.

Someone from the office came to pick me up and the hotel was about 20 min away. Traveler Inn which is just inside the 2nd ring in Beijing. Its a cute little hotel with fish and birds in the lobby. Nice and clean and good staff. I will be staying there also when I return to Beijing in July. I guess its really hard to get short term leases in the city, so a hotel it will be. The hotel is on a hutong, which are alleyways that criss cross the center of the city. The hutongs are representative of old Beijing. But they also make it difficult to understand the road system. Streets are not very well labeled. Even if they were you don't have time to read them because you will get run down. The streets are filled with cars and bikes and people. Cars are a relatively recent phenomena in Beijing and people are horrible drivers.

Exhaustion.