Bagless in China
So here I am in central China, at the start of my two-week adventure. I’ve been on the Board of Sias International University for almost 4 years now, but because of scheduling conflicts, this is my first trip here.
My trip here was a long one, a total of 29 hours door to door. It would have closer to 28 hours, if not for losing an hour in dealing with the fact that while I made it here, my bags didn’t. As I stood at the baggage carousel,I’d looked around me, realizing that I was the only non-Asian there. As more and more people collected their bags, I spotted another white guy also starting to look anxious about his luggage. It turned out that we were the only two people whose bags didn’t make it. Not that I’m paranoid or anything; coincidences can happen, right?
What is funny is that I know that my bags made it to Beijing, because I had to pick them up and recheck them. Knowing then what I know now, I should have reached in and surreptitiously grabbed a change of clothing. As I sit here in bed writing this, I am not relishing the thought of having to put back on my two-day old travel clothes. I’d prefer that the first impression of me is my smile, not my smell!
Today, I’m going to get to meet some students, which I’m really looking forward to. Sias was a pipe dream 12 years ago, and when it opened, it had just 200 students. Now, it has over 25,000 students, and is still growing!
Okay, time to shower and get breakfast. More later.