Evan's Reeducation -- A Two Week Experience

Greetings from Kunming, China...

Already, in about 18 hours in this faraway land, I am incredibly grateful to be here, and thankful to have a cultured native guiding me around. Sure, Lexi has only been reeducated for about seven months, but she seems to grasp everything around her. I, meanwhile, am like an infant again when it comes to communication. I look around, watch, listen, and rarely speak. I've never done anything like this before; it's an overwhelming but incredible experience.

The adventure began when I arrived at the Raleigh airport around 6:30 AM on Monday morning. From there, a smooth flight to Newark set the stage for a 13+ hour intercontinental journey to Beijing. Though the endless travel may have been challenging to some, after riding a bus through the South Atlantic League this past summer, it was a peace of cake, particularly with the individual touch-screen devices on the back of every single seat. With over 300 movies, dozens of tv shows, and about 25 arcade games to play, it really wasn't that bad of a time. I devoured three hour-long episodes of The Wire (the most important show ever made -- watch it if you have never seen it), an episode of Flight of the Conchords, two movies (Catch Me If You Can and Meet the Fockers), and a good portion of a Lewis Black HBO special. Combine all that with a few games of Asteroids, Space Invaders, and Mini-Golf, tell me that's not a fun way to spend to 13 hours when you can't move. Sure, you're a little confined in terms of space, but it is not hard to avoid boredom. Plus, they bring you decent food every few hours. The weirdest part was waking up the Chinese guy next to me to be able to get to the bathroom, an underratedly difficult thing to do.

I spent about five hours in the Beijing airport, including a stint in a nice coffee shop. I was planning on eating something, but on the menu everything looked more expensive than the 75 yuan that I possessed (about 10 bucks). I tried to watch Monday's episode of 24 using the wireless internet that was available, but right after hulu loaded it told me that it was not available in this part of the world. In the words of Jack Bauer, dammit.

Despite the fact that I was remarkably sleep deprived, I remained energized. Lexi's talked a lot about everyone staring at her all the time. Me, I felt like I was staring at everyone else. Not in a rude way, but just looking around and trying to understand what was going on around me.

I finally got on my flight to Kunming around 7 PM China team, or 7 AM eastern time (approximately 25 hours since I began the journey). With not much sleep in that duration, I completely passed out on the ensuing flight. I remember putting my headphones on right after we took off, and seemingly moments later my leg was tapped by an attractive Chinese stewardess, asking me to remove them cause we were landing. Fastest three and a half hour flight ever.

That was my journey. Lexi was waiting for me behind the glass with a devious smile on her face. Some might claim her smile is friendly, but I know better. This is the first time we've seen each other since one day last June. Before that, it was for two days the previous Thanksgiving. Now we got two weeks. It's pretty exciting. Much to see. More to experience.

Time to go to dinner, which will apparently be followed by trivia and drinking. Cheers!

I am a wordy blogger I know, but I will try to post more details soon about my first day in China, which included a sensational Chinese lunch, a lengthy walk around town, as well as an awesome bunch of pickup basketball games with no one else who spoke English.

My reeducation continues...