What an exciting and busy day! The delegation is arriving but not all at the same time. Coordinating pick ups and schedules was an intensive process. We spent the morning planning who would pick up which group of delegates. We also found out that there was an interpreter conference being hosted in Changchun during the time that we would be there. Our wonderful coordinator, Erin, made some calls and we got invited to attend. Since we were adding yet another conference we decided we would go shopping for a new suit jacket.  We headed to the Silk Market and ended up at a small shop that custom makes suits and dresses. It was a lot of fun negotiating what we wanted and how much we wanted to pay for it.

After shopping we had coffee at a local cafe and decided that Kathy and Bakar would go sight see at the Summer Palace and Erin and I would go to the airport and pick up the delegation.

The group was arriving at different times in different terminals. Erin and I split up and she met Xuan, Aaron, Shawn, Dawn, Reen and Christine arriving at Terminal 2 and I went to Terminal 3 to meet Terry, Evon, and MJ. Leah and Rebecca arrived much later so we sent a driver to pick them up from the airport. Getting through customs and baggage claim takes a while so we were there for about 3 hours. What an awesome feeling to see our group walk through the international arrivals line. As we were arriving from Terminal 3 and walking to the bus the Terminal 2 group arrived. Yay!!! AARON!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardest part about arriving in the middle of the day is that we needed to keep all the delegation members awake. They can’t even nap. If they do, then jet lag will hit really hard. The best way to stay awake is to walk. We gathered outside of the hotel with Caroline and Xuan to walk to dinner.

 

For dinner we walked from the Jiangui Garden Hotel to a restaurant called Yu Xin Chuan Dish 渝鑫川菜. This restaurant is located in the Chinese Opera house. A traditional Chinese meal made it a beautiful start to our delegation.

After dinner everyone was exhausted. We walked back to the hotel and everyone settled in for the night. It’s going to be a great couple weeks!