Welcome to Chiner

phew! We made it!
Brace yourselves for this might be a lengthy update. After quick and easy flights to L.A. we arrived only to find out that our overseas flight to Hong Kong had been cancelled due to a typhoon. With some "Amazing Race" skills we got everything switched over to Korean Air to fly into Seoul. We ran onto the jet way with a fellow company j-girl as the last people onto the plane. We were so relieved that we made the flight but knew there was no way that our bags would. Oh well, what can you do. So we get to Seoul, (meanwhile getting a play by play of flying overseas from the girl next to us. She apparently is quite the expert let me tell you.) and we do some begging and pleading to get a flight to Beijing. By the way, if you ever get a chance to drop by the Seoul airport it's well worth it. Coolest place ever. We took a few pictures.
Here's one of Brandon eating Dunkin' Donuts in front of a huge advertisement. It looks like he's in the middle of Tianamen Square.

So we get to Beijing, which is pretty much a trash for brains airport surrounded by poorest of the poorest shacks, but next to the "in-progress" airport for the upcoming Olympics. We get on a bus which takes us out to our little airplane to take us to our city. Being, yet again, the last people to arrive only makes us more of a spectacle as we get on the plane as the only whities.
Alas we made it to our city, and much to our surprise so did our bags! All eight of them! Truly a modern day miracle especially for Chinese standards. It was quite a long 36 hours of travel but we made it in one piece...well almost. Brandon kinda lost his head. haha

And now we're here in our apartment which we really really like. We're Americanizing it a bit so as to make it feel a little more like home. The building is only about five years old but you'd think it was built in the 40's when you look at the outside of the building. To summarize: Chinese sanitation project has quite a ways to go. Sorry, no pictures of it yet.
One thing we truly enjoy is how cheap everything is. Today for lunch we ate on $3 (US). But eating is sometimes an adventure as well. Check out some local delicacies.

MMMM silk worms and crickets. Tasty. But good news: We've found Skippy Peanut Butter and Pringles and Honey. That's exciting. And yes...dog is often on the menu over here. The other day we heard a dog yelping outside our kitchen window. It's not really that uncommon but for some reason we thought we'd check it out. So we go to the window only to see the chef from the restaurant across the alley decked out in his apron and hat scrubbing down a dog. Don't ask me what he was going to do with him next...

We'll try to post some pictures of the traffic sometime soon. It's pretty interesting. I'd kill myself if I tried to drive over here. It's a nice city though, with lots of things to do and I think before too long it will begin to feel more and more like "home."