My first real post from China!

For those of you who read my first post...I technically lied. Apparently I can't used blogger in China. I stupidly thought I could and didn't even check ahead of time if it would be blocked. I knew Facebook would be, but for some silly reason assumed blogger would be alright. I knew if I really wanted to use Facebook I could just pay $15 to use a VPN for a month, but figured I would be alright with being cut off from Facebook for two measly weeks. Long story short, I had to use a VPN anyway, since there was no other easy way to access Blogger. I still plan on keeping off of Facebook though, largely to see if I can even do it.

So first things first, my flight. I was on a Boeing 777 and it was a United Airlines flight. They've been revamping their interiors and it really showed. I was in lowly economy class and my seat actually slide forward a bit when I reclined in order to facilitate even more horizontal movement. It was something small but quite pleasantly unexpected, like when it's hot outside and you're parched and you finally find a drinking fountain and not only is it working, but the water is ice cold. It was kinda like this.

Now for something a lot flights get a bad rap for. I mean it's been a long standing joke among comedians for yeas. In-flight movies. The last time I was flying to China there were some pretty awesome in-flight movies on the channels. I watched Scott Pilgrim not once but twice since it was showing on the way there and on the way back. There was a tv in the back of the seat in front of you, right above the tray thingy, and it was awesome. This time however, things were different. Way different. The screen on the back of the seat? Touch screen. It was a kind of crappy touch screen that wasn't calibrated super well, but why do I care when I get to choose between tv, movies, games, or a map of where the airplane currently is? What movies you ask? Casablanca. Breakfast at Tiffany's. All the Ocean's movies. Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Both Christopher Nolan Batman movies. Beauty and the motherfucking Beast. There were at least 50 different movies to chose from. I almost pooped myself while sitting there gleefully trying to figure out how to entertain myself for the 13 hour flight. 

Tv? Big Bang Theory. Parks and Rec. How I Met Your Mother. Phineas and Ferb. It was a god damned gold mine. There were only two small disappointments, no Scrubs and there were only so many episodes of each show. The latter didn't break my heart or anything and was understandable, but I want to watch Parks and Rec from the beginning so I skipped it. But yeah, there was some quality entertainment on that touch screen, and I figured out I had to touch the screen a little to the left and below the spot I actually wanted to hit, so the calibration issue was pretty much moot anyway. 

If you can't tell, I ended up watching a lot of movies/TV. I started off with Young Adult and it was kind of disappointing, you saw the ending coming after the first five minutes, but hey it had Patton Oswalt in it and I'll see him in pretty much anything simply because I love his stand up so much and want him to succeed more in life. I had heard lukewarm things so I really should have seen it coming. I then proceeded to 21 Jump Street  because I had heard it was surprisingly good, and it really was. It was just the right blend of funny, clever, and serious, I highly recommend it. Then I knocked out an episode of HIMYM (the one where Barney tries to stop wearing suits in order to nail a hot waitress and the episode ends with a sweet musical number) and watch some Phineas and Ferb with my sister while sharing headphones and I passed out in the middle of hte episode for 3 hours or so. The flight was at 10:37 am, which meant getting up at 6:45 to make sure my sister and I got to the airport on time. My sister didn't arrive in Darien (where my mom lives and where we spent the night since my mom was the one driving us to the airport) until about 4:30 am and I had to let her into the apartment since she didn't have her keys, I was pretty damn tired. Hell, I still am. More on that later. 

So I wake up and proceed to knock out both Batman movies in chronological order and then got about an hour and ten minutes in Chronicle before the plane landed. So all in all, 4.75 movies and 1.75 tv shows, a sweet nap, and two in flight meals that were quite good (beef and veggies with bread, butter, a salad with sweet onion dressing and a browning, and then an hour before we touched down dumplings and veggie noodles with a bag of Kettle chips and two cookies) I arrived in China. I didn't lose my passport when we were getting our luggage like I did last time, (yes it was embarrassing, yes I was panicking, no I will never live that down) and we found my dad after waiting only about five minutes for our luggage. 

We then took a "long distance bus" from where we were (The Pudong International airport in Shanghai) to Hangzhou (where my father lives). The bud ride took about 3.5 hours and started at 3 pm, so we arrive in the city at about 6:30 and then grab a cab to head to dinner with my grandpa and some friends of my dad who we met the last time we visited. They're super awesome, I'll probably have lots of fun stories about them later on. 

We ate some damn good food. I think I'll upload the pics tomorrow since my battery is dying and I forgot to ask my dad for a power adapter for the wall outlet. You'll all get to see tomorrow. 

But yeah, I wasn't kidding when I said I like to type a lot. I feel like I type a lot like how I talk, with too much detail and lots of tangents. Well too bad jerks, that's how I roll. Oh also, it's supposed to rain pretty much the whole time I'm here and may make it not only insufferably humid, but also just plain miserable to do anything outside of my father's apartment. Balls. Oh, and I forgot how dirty China is. I don't know how, but I did. 

TL;DR: watched 4.75 in-flight movies on a built in touch screen, pooped, landed in China to rain and dirt. 

Lates!