Day 1, from Ethan

The trip to China can be described as long, tedious, and exhausting. But, it was in a way still fun and definitely worth it.  

On March 17th at around 11am we got on the bus that would take us to JFK. Once we got to the airport we checked our bags, got our plane tickets, and then went through security, which took around 30 min. This meant that we had a couple hours to spare just waiting for the plane. We bought some extremely expensive airport snacks and water to prepare for the flight.

Once we boarded the plane, we had to find our seats. The plane was huge and had 2 floors which made it somewhat hard. When we finally made it to our seats, we started encountering Chinese.

Soon enough, we were 34,000 ft in the air trying to look out the windows at the country we were leaving behind. The flight attendants came around with food, which consisted of beef, rice, bread, and yogurt. They were very strict and made us shut our windows and we weren't allowed to go on our phones, even in airplane mode.  

For the next couple hours I mostly watched movies, ate, and thought about starting homework. Just after 3 hours, it had already felt like we had been on the plane for an eternity. We tried to pass the time by sleeping. Luckily in my row, there were no strangers so I didn't have to worry about bothering them. I was sitting with Maddy and Erika and at first we thought sleeping would be a breeze. We quickly realized it wasn't, after trying out multiple sleeping positions. I ended up on the bottom of the pile but it was the most comfortable way we could find. We went in and out of sleep but probably only got around 2 hours total. 

One of the best things about the flight was the beautiful view. The path we took was to go up to the Arctic and come back down to China through Russia. Even though the flight attendants were watching us, we could still peep out the window once in a while. There was usually just snow or clouds, but around 10 hours into the flight, we could see mountains and rivers and even small towns.

When we arrived at the airport, we were completely exhausted. It felt like we had been away from home for months, even though it wasn't even 24 hours. We went through customs, grabbed our bags, and exchanged currency, which took hours. 

But overall, the plane ride gave a little homesickness and a strong desire to be in our own comfy bed. However, it still was very fun to travel and see new things. We are already having a good time and we'll be home soon!