Today is flight day. Nearly fourteen hours of sky time and the longest I have gone without night in my lifetime (By travelling to China I altogether skip the evening hours). My four hour layover in Newark, New Jersey turned into a five and a half layover which was spent half in fitful sleep and the other half conversing with fellow students in the Beijing Center program. We are all worried about the placement test that determines which Chinese class we take, as well as smaller issues such as converters and how to access the Internet.
Right now though I’m more concerned with immediately pressing matters, such as how I can stretch my cramped legs. I’m sitting in a seat that, while a window seat, is unfortunately located against a partition—preventing me from leaning my chair back. I got on the plane too late to grab a space for my backpack, so I was forced to place it underneath the chair in front of me and thus have no legroom to stretch out. Two people beside me are sleeping and thus preventing me from escaping easily. And lastly, I seem to have the craziest luck in that the only seat reclined happens to be right in front of me. I simply have no space, and another seven hours of confined torture.
And yet this is still the coolest experience of my life. When I flew to England, it was over an ocean. Flying to Beijing, I get to fly over the North Pole! The latter is of course much more awesome. I get to look out at the disappearing ice and all the tiny white polar bears. How many days in a lifetime can you say “I crossed the North Pole today”? Not many.
Arriving in Beijing around 3pm, I’m excited to get started in my study abroad. Not to mention scared mindless. Reviewing my knowledge of Chinese on the plane has made me realize…I should have reviewed a lot more this summer. But I’ll cross that language bridge when I come to it (in seven hours!). Meanwhile, let me just focus on crossing the North Pole.
Samm Nicolino says: 
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