And … I am in Beijing. It took about 22 hours door-to-door, Boston to Chicago to Beijing. Since the flight was arriving in Beijing in the late afternoon, I tried not to sleep that much on the plane to get started on fighting the jet lag. In turn, I got some pictures of the amazing views out the window throughout.

Lake Michiganlake_michigan

Swirling clouds somewhere over Canadaclouds

Ice crystals on the window glassice

The Arctic Oceanarctic_ocean

Somewhere over frozen Siberiasiberia

Mountain peaks, still over Russiapeaks

Some rivers coming off of the above mountain rangerivers

Gorgeous basinsflat_tops

Flatter terrain, though it’s hard to tell how flat it actually isflatter

First signs of civilization amidst all the white!civilization

Cold cold settlements in the mountains about 30 minutes before Beijingtowns

Geometric settlements in the outskirts of Beijing (terrain is now very very flat)geometric

Health inspection booths are before the immigration countershealth

Home! Looking out my bedroom windowhome

My aunt and uncle came up to Beijing from Hangzhou to meet me at the airport and help me settle in. I now have a phone, internet, and leftover Peking duck in the fridge. I also successfully took the bus to work this morning, though I had a hard time waking up on time (bye bye jet lag?).

Final note: it is COLD here. I’ve yet to derive any meaning from Celsius temperatures, but I’m told it got down to -5C yesterday. I converted that to 23F before responding, “Oh wow, that’s below freezing.” Hahaha.