Today was pretty long, or short depending on your perspective. It's Sunday night, though it feels like it should be Saturday night, or maybe Sunday morning. We had to wait on the plane in JFK airport for about two hours, so we started off late. The plane ride itself wasn't as horrible as everyone made it sound, although there was one time when I asked myself how I was going to make it for another 7 hours. Since I was by a window seat, I didn't get up at all; I mostly just shifted around trying not to be in a position that would strain some part of my body. I tried to sleep a little but not too much, so that I wouldn't be wide awake when we got to Beijing. That method proved to work pretty well.
When we got on the bus it smelled like smoke. I had been told earlier that there are a lot of people who smoke in Beijing; I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I guess I'll find out during the week. I got used to the smell fairly quickly so it didn't bother me on the trip back. We played name games and ice breakers. One of those was "never have I ever", during which time I discovered that I apparently have the least life experience, when it comes to things like, not owning a cat, not getting pulled over and never having taken a business class at Pitt.
Even though it was already 10:30 pm by the time we got to the hotel, everyone was still interested in getting dinner, since we were all pretty hungry. The restaurant we ate at was famous for its porridge. The menu had pictures and a few translations, though the translations were not very helpful. Thankfully we had help from students at Tsinghua University to tell us what we might be interested in trying. Once we finally decided what to eat, we ordered our food. It was really good! I had been slightly nervous I would be a really picky eater and wouldn't like the food. Also I was usure of my chopstick skills. However, I loved the food and did pretty well with the chopsticks. Overall, my experience at the restaurant was really good. I'm excited to try more food at new places.