Day 1: Continued

August 24 (25) - Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, 8:55 pm PST (10:55 am PEK)

I'm now something like 15 hours into this trip... or move... or whatever it's called. Such an odd thought!

Regardless, if my calculations are correct (and to be sure, there's a better than average chance that I'm way off), there's only another 6-ish hours until we arrive in Beijing. And from there, another 3 hour layover before a 2-hour flight south to Wenzhou.

...yippy-skippy...

A few things I've determined thus far:

• I liked my previous pan-Pacific flight a lot more. There's no individual entertainment screen for each seat. Apparently they've got those in business.first-class, though... bastards.
• They do still offer free wine here though. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's a red called Greatwall (go figure), and it both smells and tastes like the Chinese who made it had only the vaguest idea of what red wine is. It's a bit like old grape juice mixed with butane, and then left out in the heat for a month.
• Though they clearly do have "special request meals" (they parade them out first), apparently my gambit at requesting a kosher meal was a no-go. Just the regular gruel for me. Not bad, for airline food... not that that bar's set very high. I guess the last name Stewart just wasn't Jewish enough... but c'mon!! What about Jon Stewart?!

I've been able to get a little sleep though. That's been an unexpected bonus! And the guy sitting next to me (an empty seat between us - YES!) is pretty cool. An exporter by the name of Luis from TX/CA, who apparently was an English teacher for a bit, and he assures me it's a great gig.