Post-Op: I can Drink Tap Water Again!

Well, I just walked in my front door after 6 hours at the office, half an hour in a cab, 2 hours at Pudong, 14 hours on a plane, 6.5 hours at O'Hare (my flight got delayed twice), another 3-hour flight, and a ten-minute cab ride home. I maybe slept a total of 4 of those hours.

I picked up a sore throat on Wednesday night (it was probably that game of badminton), which morphed into a cold sometime Friday morning. This is odd for me because I have not been sick, not even a cold, since like April of 2005. Of course I was expecting something to happen in Shanghai, so if I can come away from a weeklong visit with just a cold, I think that's a good thing. At least I didn't get any wigglies :-)

I guess because the pressure in my sinuses/head is different than normal, my head and ears really hurt when landing both in Chicago and in Austin. It was pretty terrible. And my left ear was all stopped up for hours after I landed in Chicago. I've had small episodes of this phenomenon on planes but a good yawn always clears it right up. It's never been this bad.

I kept forcing a yawn because that usually helps relieve the pressure. But thank goodness I have a cold, because when I went to blow my nose, that pretty much fixed the problem :-) Unfortunately it offset my equilibrium for a couple seconds, so I was swaying in the airport bathroom. But when the air escapes it makes this neat little gurgling sound. I can hear it loud and clear because it's in my own head. But I wonder if anyone else can hear it? I doubt it, but that'd be kind of hilarious :-)

Anyway, I left out some stuff. In addition to what I posted before, I ate spicy duck tongue, chicken knuckles (chicken cartilage), sashimi, scallops, and okonomiyaki, which was delicious. These latter four dishes were at a Japanese place - I can't remember the name but I think it was on Huai Hai Lu. Anyway it was really good. I also had some nigiri-sushi, which has a dab of wasabi in it ... now I've had wasabi before in the States, but I guess it gets more authentic the closer you get to Japan. Because the wasabi in Shanghai incapacitated me for like 10 seconds :-)

I also had Papa John's and Pizza Hut; the former with pickles on top and the latter with some fish and squid on top. Mmmm, can't get that in the States. The pizza was good but definitely not the quality I'm used to here in America.

In what seems like an ongoing theme, the Pizza Huts in Shanghai are way nicer than in America. The one we went to, in the Thumb Plaza, seems like a good date restaurant. The decor is all modern and fancy-looking. It's not quite the atmosphere of an Olive Garden, but definitely closer to that than in the States.

Speaking of which, I made fun of the Shanghai HoJo Zhangjiang before I ever went there. Well, it's moreso that I made fun of the concept of this hotel as opposed to the hotel itself :-) I feel I owe it (the concept) an apology. It was a supremely nice hotel. Very slick and with great service. Awesome breakfast in the mornings (including sushi!). Probably one of the three nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. And everybody was so nice!

Pictures are coming soon!

Touchdown!!

After many many manyhours on a plane, I've arrived safely in the Pearl of the Orient. Let me just say one thing -- I'm glad I'm not driving over here :-)

The flight was painless. I watched a lot of movies and TV on the in-flight entertainment system. There was even a cool feature where you could track the flight's progress on a map of the Earth. GPS system I guess. At one point I was able to look out the window and see -- Siberia. How awesome is that? I never thought I'd see Siberia, ever :-)

I'm not even really tired. Maybe it's the adrenaline working. I'm sure I'll crash out tonight :-)

First Post

Today I received confirmation of my flight for the initial 8-day visit to Shanghai, so I thought I'd set up this blog. I booked my seats on the Boeing 777 from O'Hare to Pudong, which was interesting. Everyone at work recommended a site called www.seatguru.com where you can see which seats have power outlets, which seats are likely to be noisy, and things like that. I'm traveling with an engineer friend of mine, so I got a seat across the aisle and down a row from him. I'm not too worried about not having a power outlet.

14+ hours on a plane, not to mention the time spent waiting in airports. I'll certainly buy some new books for the trip. I also plan on getting a Nintendo DS to help pass the time. Plus a notebook and pen for scribbling down random thoughts over the Pacific Ocean. And some earplugs. Definitely earplugs.

A friend suggested getting some eye drops because my eyes will dry out on the plane, and some lotion because my hands will dry out on the plane, and pretty much everything is supposed to dry out when you're sealed in a metal tube hurtling through the air for over half a day.

The longest flight I've ever been on was from Maryland to California. My current flights now are mainly from Austin back to Maryland, which is about 3 hours. I don't know, I think I'll be fine. But I learned a new phrase tonight: Economy class syndrome :-)