Finally I arrived in Changsha, my destination, the last stop.  I was heading to pick up my luggage when two girls in front of me looked back, one of the girls said “My friend thinks you are very pretty, will you take a picture with us?” I had to laugh, I had just been traveling for the past 24 hours, let’s just say it was not a shining moment for me.  Still I was eager to meet new people, so I agreed, after they took at least 10 pictures of me with various people from their group, they then walked with me to pick up my luggage.  We chatted about this and that, she asked me if I have skype and a phone number, saying “ if there is anything you need help with or if you have any questions at all please contact me!”.  She wrote down all her contact information on a small piece of paper, than the group wished me goodbye.  Since then 4 other people from “the center” (which is what they call the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center for short) have done the same thing.  Everyone seems so ready to help me, which is very comforting in a land where everything is foreign. 

I arrived in China last night.  After a 14 hour flight over the North Pole than down through Siberia, I was just happy to finally reach the nation I have been dreaming of for months.  The plane landed in the Beijing airport, which was not what I had expected.  Of course, it was huge and simple in decoration.  But I never expected it to be so Americanized.  I thought that the language barrier would pose a huge problem, but each sign I saw had Chinese and English writing on it.  I was not lost once.   However, it was not the building, or even the language that came as a shock to me while walking through the airport.  It was the culture that was so clearly and drastically different that made it clear to me that I am far from home.  

For example, a woman working in the airport spotted me and starts talking to me in Chinese, pointing at my hair, than at the water machine (which is like a high tech version of a drinking fountain).  She smiled and talked, than filled up a cup of water for me.  Even though I didn’t understand a single word she said, I could hear the kindness and concern in her voice.  Something I had never experienced at an airport before in my life.  I continued walking, until I got to a long line that was formed in order for the health inspectors to check us for H1N1.  Our temperatures were already checked before we even got off the plane, but every precaution was being taken.   There were sensors monitoring for H1N1 throughout the airport and about half of the Chinese people on the plane were wearing masks. Another interesting thing is that whenever anyone steps on an escalator in Beijing a message starts playing in both Chinese and English.  Warning you to hold the handle and watch your step, I have never seen anything like this in the USA.