Day One: Across the Pacific

Blogger's note: We'll be posting some pictures on the blog but check out this link for pictures from our pro, Simpson - http://www.flickr.com/photos/simpsonyiu/
Next stop: China - Thursday, July 5th, 2012
The Rooters, our leaders, mentors, friends and family all gathered at SFO for the send off to China. The yearly ritual includes comparing packing ability, last minute advice from mentors to mentees and pictures - lots of pictures. Once the ritual was complete we headed of to the gate to start our long journey to China.
The Flight: Short and Sweet
Our flight from SFO to Hong Kong was only 13 hours, which gave us plenty of time to sleep, watch movies and eat as much ramen as we wanted. We were all sitting in separate seats which led to some interesting experiences. Some had small children use their shoulder as a pillow and legs as a jungle gym. Others took the time to grab some sleep. One even found out there is nothing sweeter than Honey, and even got her number.
Landing and Crossing the Border
We landed in Hong Kong the morning of July 7th, local time. After meeting intern Jonny Lam the group was finally all together. After getting situated with phones and money we began the long trip to Enping.
The crossing from Hong Kong to China was nice and smooth. We switched from mini-vans to a bus to get to Guangzhou to meet up with the officials we'd be traveling with. The first leg of the bus ride gave us time to find out that Jonny laughs so loud it angers bus drivers and that Simpson is a camera encyclopedia.
The mini-bus and Lunch
After meeting with the officials and loading the mini-bus with our luggage we headed to our first meal. Everything was delicious, especially the rice - apparently Ryan has never had rice so good. There was chicken, pork belly, spicy beef, fish and more. After lunch we loaded up on the bus once again and began the drive to Enping.
The Stool, Rehearsal and Are You Smarter than a High Schooler?
With our luggage taking a significant portion of the mini-bus's interior a quick solution for a extra seat was created with a little red stool, some seat belts and clever placement of bags to lock it in place. Perfect. The trip was going to be about four hours during which time we had a chance to test our wits against Ryan: age sixteen, GPA 5.0. Needless to say, we lost. We also had a chance to practice our performance and choreography.
Dinner and Dancing
After settling into our hotel we headed out for dinner. Dinner was eel claypot rice, a soup with thorny, local greens eating which Matt managed to injure himself. We had a great meal and got to walk around the area and see hundreds of people dancing in a park. We went back to the hotel to finish out a day that started in San Francisco and ended in Enping.