Day 1: JFK-Shanghai

It's 4:24 PM in Shanghai, which means it's 3:24 AM in New York. I'm going through the worst stage of jet lag right now, so I thought I'd hop on here and update everyone. If you saw my Facebook post, you'll know that my computer is broken! This is perhaps a blessing in disguise. I'll probably do more and see more instead of parking myself in front of the laptop... but that makes blogging a little bit more complicated. I'm using Pan's lap top right now. We're not in the same hotel room--he's staying with his mother on the 11th floor and I'm on the 20th floor.

Anyway, back to the trip! I was fourteen years old the last time I flew a flight this long... it was a completely different experience this time around! It didn't help that China Eastern screwed up our reservations. We'd picked very specific seats based on research I'd performed on seatguru.com. I didn't want to be near babies, the bathroom, or bulkheads (limited reclining room). Also, it was important for me to have a window seat. Even though we called numerous times before the trip to confirm our selections, the seat they ended up issuing us was not what we had picked. We ended up in the section of seats in the middle of the plane (no window!), near babies, and near the bathroom. For fourteen hours. It was a long, not so pleasant flight! I'd never been more thankful to land somewhere. Needless to say, we won't be flying China Eastern again.

I didn't know what to expect when I got off the plane. I'd never been to China before, but I feel like I came with all sorts of preconceived notions already, both good and bad. It turns out that Shanghai, at least, is a little of both: sometimes, it's exactly what I expected, sometimes, it's not at all what I imagined. To begin with, it's HUGE. New York, of course, is huge, too. One of the largest and most sophisticated cities in the world. But Shanghai is comparable in everyway, and sometimes surpasses New York! Its skyline is seemingly endless. Miles of glistening, towering skyscrapers, hyper-modern architecture, and bursting at its seams with activity. Even the airport was impressive.

It was about 8:30 PM local time when we emerged from immigration and met up with my dad and Pan's mom. We were whisked off to "dinner," even though I'm addled after the 14 hours flight and my brain thinks I should be having breakfast, instead. My first introduction to Shanghai cuisine is a late night foray into a bar. We had delicious Wonton Noodle soup (see pictures below).

Then we went to the hotel--and we now reach the highlight of my day :) I've seen lots of nice hotels, but I was completely floored by the Hotel Indigo. To put it lightly, it's my kind of hotel. I'll let the pictures below do most of the talking :)

Our plane



Oh-so-delicious plane food :-/

First moments in China! Waiting to get our luggage at Shanghai Pu Dong Airport.

My first bite of real Chinese food! Delicious Wonton Noodle Soup.

This was our all our luggage for our party of five. That is WAY TOO MUCH FREAKING LUGGAGE!

Cool looking traingular rocks in the hotel lobby.

Sink love!

You flush the toilet using something that resembles a thermostat, LOL.

Walk-in closet with motion sensing lights.

A very well-appointed mini-bar.

Check out the cool blue light.

The bathtub (complete with bath salts) and the rain shower head, the setting of what is unquestionably the most mind-blowing bathing experience I've ever had.