Conclusion. We are back in USA | Global Posts & Tags

written by Dmitry Manakhov

Good Morning Everyone!

It’s nice to be back home in North Carolina. It looks like it will be just another hot and humid summer day, and I’m going to spend it tasting all different Chinese teas that I brought with me, and browsing pictures and videos that I took during our trip. I’m absolutely positively definitely going to miss China and the time I spend with students.

Yesterday we’ve had mildy stressful day of traveling back home. First, our Beijing flight was delayed, and students spent free time in the kids playground inside the terminal. (playground was designed for children under age of 5, but we are all that age at heart). Then one of us misplaced a boarding pass, and it took a bit of time to track it down.

The 12 hour flight to Toronto was actually nice and uneventful and it wasn’t that bad. However, due to the delay we arrived more than an hour late and we only had 2 something hours for the connecting flight to RDU.

We were surprised to see that US government established a firm footprint on Canadian soil and all immigration and custom procedures happened in Toronto airport. That was a bit stressful to say the least since we thought our flight home was about to start boarding and we got stuck in enclosed area with automated passport scanners where we had to wait for our names to appear on the large display screen before we would be allowed to see customs officers.

It was actually nice that my name showed up very last on the display and i told every student to rush to the gate leaving me behind if needed. Well, once i got my passport stamped i was surprised to see a large group of students waiting in another line in front of metal detector and body scanner…

Once we finally passed immigration formalities we raced as fast as we could through Toronto terminal to our gate. Yup… we ran as fast as we could only to learn that our flight to RDU was delayed as well.

The only other event that raised a lot of concerns was the fact that right before we landed in RDU our small plane started to ‘leak’ and cabin floor filled with rather thick fog or cloud. Griffin and Rosie weren’t amused, but at that point the plane touched down on the runway.

Few minutes later students and parents finally met each other after a long 3 week trip.

As promised, you can find the links below to the picture albums of every day that we spent together. I still haven’t had a chance to edit any of the pics or videos, everything is ‘as is’ for you to see.

Day 1 05-24 – Flight and Arrival to Shanghai – http://1drv.ms/1KKtQAw

Day 2 05-25 – Shanghai http://1drv.ms/1KKu2jd

Day 3 -5-26 – Arrival to Xi’An http://1drv.ms/1KKubTI

Day 4 5-27 – Xi’An. http://1drv.ms/1KKui1J

Day 5 5-28 – Arrival to Zheng-Zhou http://1drv.ms/1KKuBJQ

Days 6-10 5-28 through 6-02 Students spent with families and we were separated.

Day 11 06-03 ZhengZhou-Taiyuan-Pingyao http://1drv.ms/1G9hYWN

Day 12 06-04 Pingyao-Wang Castle-Taiyuan http://1drv.ms/1KKviD7

Day 13 06-05 Datong – Yungang Grottoes http://1drv.ms/1KKvnGM

Day 14 – Datong-Hanging Temple-Wutai Mountains http://1drv.ms/1Gyz54z

Day 15 – Wutai Mountain http://1drv.ms/1KKvwKp

Day 16 – Arriving to Beijing http://1drv.ms/1HzcxkQ