Delays, Cancellations, and Missed Flights

The last two days have been very hectic. Yesterday our flight from Newark to Shanghai arrived at 1:40 PM after which we had a 4-hour layover before our flight from Shanghai to Xiamen. The plan was to arrive in Xiamen at 8:00 PM.  However, due to bad weather in Xiamen, our flight was cancelled and we were forced to spend the night in a nearby hotel. We tried our luck again the next day, waking up early to board a flight at 6:15AM in the morning. However due to mixups with the boarding passes, 6 of us (including me) and two other chaperones missed our flight and we had to rebook for a later flight at 3:15PM. But it just wasn’t our day!  The flight was delayed another 3 hours because of weather concerns. We eventually arrived at the campus with the other students at 10 PM. It has been a very chaotic two days but at least I am here in Xiamen and the journey begins tomorrow with a holiday excursion trip in honor of the 4th of July.

On the bright side, I got to try some cool cheese rice in one of the restaurants at the airport.

Pre-Departure Orientation in Newark

Today we had our Pre-Departure Orientation at the Hilton Newark hotel before we leave for China tomorrow. The program director, Dr. Jianguo Chen, introduced himself and the program, along with the other faculty. The entire day was dedicated to going over the guidelines of the trip, what the average day would look like, how we should represent our country etc. Dr. Carol Radomski, representative of the US State Department, gave a talk about how we were ambassadors for the U.S., and how we had to make a good impression on our host families to help strengthen the relationship between U.S. and China. After that, we had a placement exam to determine what class we will be attending in Xiamen.

With all of this out of the way, we are almost there. Our flight is tomorrow, I can’t wait!

Xiamen and Hopkinton- Twin Cities

As mentioned in my previous post, I will be leaving for Xiamen, China later this week as part of the NSLI-Y program, funded by the US State department. I recently discovered, however, that there is a direct connection between my hometown and the city I will be residing in for the next 6 weeks. I live in Hopkinton, a small town in Massachusetts which is the starting line for the famous Boston Marathon. Xiamen, coincidentally, also hosts a renowned marathon, and this connection was established by Tim Kilduff, a former race director for the Boston Marathon. Tim is the Hopkinton representative for this twin city relationship when he traveled to Xiamen, China. It is incredible that I am connected to these two cities – so far way from each other. I will be sure to share this connection with my host family in Xiamen.

(Tim Kilduff, right, Boston Marathon’s representative from Hopkinton, standing next to Chen Aijing, left, who is holding the Flame of the Marathon Run.)

Leaving for Xiamen, China next week

I am going to Xiamen China next week and I will be blogging about my travels, experiences with my host family, types of food and how they taste, and about the culture of this city in China. I am looking forward to my 6-week experience there and it should be a great journey.

The University of Delaware is driving this program this summer and you can also follow the progress here.