Dark Night

Sightseeing

It turned out that John didn't walk in the Opening Ceremony to pamper his ankle, which he missed, but he also said in a text that he'd prefer to compete so it wasn't that big a thing for him. Concerns about his ankle made us all tense, though, and Andrew Faber skated with Starry in the team competition. My brother skated the short program in order to keep his legs from getting too tired for the individual competition and nailed it. The three top teams were the US, Russia, and Canada because they had most of the best skaters in each discipline. The US team took bronze due to a fall in Andrew's long program and a disasterous short program by the pair. Todd and Nancy redeemed the team with a great program that enabled them to hang in for the medal. I took an early test in physics on Friday and went to the condo to make one more sweep to make sure I had everything I needed for the trip. I was staying with Grandpa since my parents were at the Olympics already, and we watched the games every night. I had decided to take the week off from the library as well in order to get my studying done in the afternoon and spend the time with Grandpa. During the men's part of the team competition, the network showed an interview they'd done with John, Paul, Starry, and me. It was really fluffy and the skaters described training together, and my friendship with John and Paul was talked about. I got some teasing at school for the interview, but people also said that it was fun and wanted to know if my brother was really that cool. I'd worked hard on those interviews to be the model supportive sister.

Saturday, we got up early and boarded the Air China airplane for the 12+ hour flight to Beijing. I was so excited I was practically vibrating. Grandpa fussed a little over the kitties since Invisible Steve was just starting to be visible on a regular basis, but he had a pet sitter coming in twice a day rather than taking them somewhere to be boarded. I gotta say that business class is excellent. The menu was extensive for all the meals and delicious, there were magazines, newspapers, music channels and a selection of movies by great Chinese directors. Other classic bilingual movies were available as well as CD music and games. The seats were large and modular, set two by two. A really nice console was placed between the seats and the entertainment screens were attached so that you could see even if the seat in front of you reclined. Because business class gets to board right after those who need help and first class, there was time to look around and I took some photos of the cabin. I'd made an Instagram account just for this trip so my friends could see my pictures; I could upload them and clear them out of my phone because I was a little concerned about the capacity of my phone. I also brought an older digital camera; I could remove the card and download to my computer, plus I had brought several new cards with me so there would be no issues with memory. I fully intended to make the most of this trip.

The flight itself was kind of tedious because there wasn't anything you could do as far as activities were concerned besides getting up and going to the bathroom, which, frankly, was not awesome but Grandpa said that airplane toilets were that way no matter how nice the rest of the plane was. I took advantage of the opportunity and tried a different kind of tea each time the beverage cart rolled through. The flight attendants could not have been nicer and gave me extra cookies. The white teas tasted like mildly flavored hot water, and the green teas weren't much better, but the oolong and black teas were pretty good. I also tried different foods for the meals, although I bypassed the calamari. We'd learned in biology how smart octupi were, and I just couldn't bring myself to eat it. But there were plenty of other things to try, and not all offerings were Chinese food; they had world cuisines as well. I kept myself well-occupied and Grandpa let me have the window seat; he'd flown a lot before but this was my first time. There was a stop in Hawaii, with enough time to exit into the terminal and stretch my legs (and visit a nicer bathroom) and then we were back in the air. The Pacific just looks pretty much the same no matter where you are over it. I napped some, and felt bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (as my grandpa put it) when we landed. The bored customs agent didn't dampen my enthusiasm in the slightest and we retrieved our bags and took a shuttle to our hotel, allowing me to rubberneck to my heart's content.