we're here!

We are finally here! Stop number 1...Beijing. We just arrived to our hotel about an hour ago. Our flight was 14 hours long and it's been well over 24 hours since we woke up yesterday to begin this journey. I am the one who hates flying and has been basically dreading this long flight since about Feb of 2008 when we knew we would be going to China. But, guess who threw up on the plane? Andy! Hee hee. If you don't know the two of us well, you won't really know know why this is so funny. But I'll just say that I'm the wimp of the family and Andy loves all things fun and adventurous and especially traveling. I mean, come on, I don't even ride the teacups at Disney or go down waterslides. But somehow I handled the flight beyond belief. I seriously had to contain myself when Andy turned to me and said he felt sick. To his credit (and to my completely out of character immunity to it all), even one of the flight attendants got sick. It was a pretty bumpy last 30 minutes. And yes, kids, this is the first time Daddy has thrown up since 6th grade. Sorry you all had to miss it :)

The only other memorable moments involved what the Chinese gov't is doing to prevent the h1n1 flu from spreading throughout their country. We were told before we boarded our plane that as soon as we landed we would all have our temperatures taken and if anyone had a fever that everyone three rows in front and behind that person would be quarantined for a week in China. It kind of completely freaked us out. A lot of Chinese people were wearing masks on the plane so they apparently are still taking the whole thing very seriously. The funny thing was that we all had to fill out this form and one of the questions was "have you had close contact with pigs int the last week?". Can you believe that?! There were quarantine posters and "beware" signs all over the Beijing airport. It made for a memorable trip. Throw up and swine flu. Ya, I know, you're all envious, right?!

Tomorrow could be my downfall. It's supposed to be 97 degrees. Julia + heat generally does NOT = a good situation. We're spending 1/2 the day at the Great Wall. I'll be carrying an umbrella around to keep the sun off of me and drinking gallons of water and Andy will have his turn at laughing tomorrow.

Good night for now. It's already Wednesday evening here and we are crazy exhausted. If I made no sense here, blame it on that!

Goodnight from Beijing.

PS Major bummer...can't get my pictures to attach to this email (which is how I'm posting this b/c blogspot is blocked here). i'll work on getting pictures tomorrow after i've slept.