The day started off pretty smooth. Marie and Kelly got me to the airport on time. Thanks girls. The flight from Chicago to San Francisco went by pretty quick. They played some movie that I couldn't even hear. Oh well. I did manage to catch up on some much needed sleep. When I got to San Francisco, I had to figure out something to do with my 3.5 hour layover. Oh yeah, I also needed a boarding pass for my next flight. Apparently United Airlines couldn't give me a boarding pass for my connecting Air China flight even though they were the ones working the damn thing. Since nobody was at the Air China counter, I decided to do some window shopping and get something to eat. I hit up a Mexican restaurant and watched some baseball and basketball.
 
After a while, I figured I'd better get down to the Air China counter so I could have enough time to get my ticket. I'm glad I did. I got up there and these ladies couldn't find my ticket. They kept asking me all sorts of questions. I must've handed them my passport about 7 times. They had to call in a manager to straighten things out and even she couldn't do it right away. This manager was on two cell phones and made trips in and out. I was like "WTF mate?" and finally, they called me up to get my boarding pass. It took 3 employees, 1 manager, and 45 minutes for them to print one boarding pass.
 
My flight was seriously the quickest 12 hours I've sat through. They served us two meals and zero A/C. That plane was too damn hot. For that long of a flight, one would think that they would show more than 2 movies. I guess I was wrong. I did manage to finish a book that my stepmom let me borrow around the Christmas of 2006. Sorry Angela. It was actually a really good book. I just never read any of it unless I was flying or in an airport. I bet she'll be surprised when she gets it in the mail next week. The flight was good with the exception of someone farting every 3 minutes when we first got on the plane. I don’t know who was doing it but as soon as the smell went away, here came another gust of stank. I'm glad it wasn't the entire way. He or she did start up again when we got close to landing. Maybe it was their way of getting rid of the nerves.
 
After I got out of the HUGE airport, Julia and I cabbed it back to the hostel. They cab ride was pretty cheap. Everything here seems to be cheap. We had dinner in some alley near our place and it was about $6 in US currency. We ate 15 kabobs and had 2 big beers. I don't know what meat we were eating but they seasoned those mofos like a champ. I'm pretty sure we'll be eating there a lot. The guys that work with Julia are coming today and they eat/drink there every night when they come to Beijing. So far so good.

Day 1 pics