Arrival in Beijing

(written on Saturday, May 12)
Well, we are here! But not without a little drama. The last 20 minutes or so on the plane were extremely turbulent - strong winds caused the plane to erratically move
side-to-side and up-and-down..and it felt like it would never end. On top of that there was a screaming baby in the row behind me who was wailing at the top of his lungs non-stop. I thought I would go crazy and kept praying that his screaming and the movement would stop but apparently it was difficult for the pilot to get us down because we kept circling before we landed. And then the passengers on both sides of me lost their lunch, which had just quickly been served in the last 40 minutes before landing. Thanks to my fast moves I got both of them their bag just before they lost it, because I think I sensed what was coming before they did. Both were students-one from our program and the other was in another student group. After that, I had all I could do to keep from getting sick, but I managed to keep it together, though I didn't settle down until a couple hours later. Having a minimum of sleep didn't help either, though I did manage to sleep about 4.5 hours out of the 13 hour flight. But all of this is in the past...I am here and all is well.