For me, the process of getting ready to leave for China was pushed off to the last minute by the barrage of work associated with wrapping up the first half of the semester. The night before leaving, I took a midterm, scheduled Rice EMS for March special events, and sent innumerable emails before settling down to pack in the wee hours of the morning. I slept about an hour and a half, and then it was off to catch the shuttle to the airport at 0500.
When I woke up, I had a reply to one of those innumerable emails. I had queried the Shanghai Municipal Information office about pharmaceutical policy, my research topic, and I was excited to hear what they would say. Unfortunately, the reply wasn’t actually a response, but a notification that their email account didn’t accept messages from unknown addresses. I didn’t fully realize it at the time, but this was a good example of how hard it can be to get cooperation from the Chinese bureaucracy without an introduction. Connections are important.
Curiously enough, both the parent course professor (Dr. Marshall) and the lab instructor (Shelby) had independently designated me in charge of making sure everyone got on the shuttle in the morning. I guess I have some sort of responsible vibe, or something (This may also be why my classmates nicknamed me “Dad”…). Anyway, I rounded up them up and we got on our way to the airport a few minutes early. Which was all for naught, as apparently temperatures above freezing are sufficient to overwhelm Delta’s deicing capabilities at IAH, and our flight to Detroit was delayed to the point it was clear that we would miss our connection to China. It was a terrible waste of our collective sacrifice in getting up so early (I think our class averaged something like two hours of sleep). But there was nothing to be done for it, and the best Delta could do for rebooking was to send us out of NYC the next day on China Eastern.
Waiting at LaGuardia
As disappointing as losing out on a day in China was, I was pleased with our layover destination, as I had never been to NYC before. Our hotel was out by JFK airport, but we went into downtown for the evening to see the sights. Although it was bitterly cold to be walking around the streets of NYC, I really enjoyed seeing Times Square, Central Park, and the Empire State building for the first time. In taking in my first impressions of NYC, I noticed that the air quality was worse than I would have expected. Little did I know what I would be in for in China…
Snow in Central Park
The next afternoon, it was off to China on an almost 15-hour flight. I was somewhat disappointed with the service and food quality on China Eastern, but that was partially because I expect higher standards from a non-US carrier. I made it through the flight comfortably enough by watching five movies back-to-back. One thing that really surprised me on the flight, though, was a Chinese man offering to let me use the airplane restroom before him if I was planning on being quick. I wonder if that is related to some sort of cultural difference between Americans and the Chinese.
As we arrived in China, one of the most fascinating parts of the customs process was having ability to rate the agent sitting across from you by pushing a button 1-5 on a machine. Of course, one wonders about how safe it would be to give the agent a poor grade, but it was nevertheless unexpected for China to be allowing you to provide such feedback from the moment you walk in. After clearing customs, we took the subway into the city, and we were in Shanghai!
On the Shanghai subway