Beginning of Beijing Trip..

Emma and I left our dorms for the Hong Kong Airport several hours (and by several hours, I mean 10 hours) before our flight left. Long story short, we weren't sure if we would be able to get there early in the morning for our flight, so we just decided to stay overnight at the airport. In hindsight, I'm still not sure if it was a good or bad idea. Either way, we were convinced that nothing bad could happen...our thoughts: if we stay overnight at the airport, there is NO possible way that we will miss our flight. Nothing will go wrong. Unfortunately, this was a bad assumption. Very bad assumption.... When we went to check in, Emma was able to get her boarding pass just fine, but for me, it was a different story. China Air informed me that my booking had been canceled and that I no longer had a spot on the flight. Since I booked through Expedia, I immediately called them to find out what had happened. Once again, they were less than helpful. They told me that someone had called to cancel my booking on my behalf and since check-in was over in 30 minutes, they told me to buy my ticket directly through the airlines. Thank God there was a spot left on the flight! So, yes, big hassle, but I finally got my ticket and Emma and I arrived safely in Beijing three hours later.


We checked into our super awesome hostel, Salitun Youth Hostel and we were so happy! It was a little bit hard to find, but luckily we had the address in Chinese so our taxi driver knew where to take us. Our room was super clean and nice, the staff was friendly, and the food was delicious! (And they had three cute kittens!)

Emma and I went out for duck for dinner at a restaurant just a few minutes away from our hostel. Delicious :) Later in the evening, Emma and I met up with the other exchange students who were staying in our hostel. It was so exciting to see everyone!

what a crew!