It’s my first full day in China, and I’ve already been so busy.

My trip began three days ago on Thursday morning (June 2) as I rushed to make sure I had packed everything I needed but somehow I managed to forget a few things in my two huge red suitcases.

I arrived at JFK around 1:30 p.m. with my parents and older brother to meet the rest of my group; Dr. (Jing) Luo and (Jim) Pomfret were already there with Michelle and Sarah (Halter). I said a quick goodbye to my family and headed off for some slight humiliation in customs.

Once we were inside the airport, it still didn’t seem real to me. It was just like a fun day trip rather than the beginning of a three-week-long study abroad in China.

Along with Michelle and Sarah, I waited for the rest of the group to join us in the terminal and slowly they came in.

It wasn’t hard to spot them.

After a few hours of walking around and taking pictures, the boarding call went out and we happily went on the plane! Unfortunately our happiness died down a bit when as we waited for hours on the plane because of a mechanical problem with the GPS.

After about five hours on the plane in JFK, they told us we needed to leave the plane and could come back at 10:30 p.m. Later they informed us the flight was cancelled until the next day at 4 p.m. and we would spend the night in a hotel nearby.

Feeling very tired, but full after the dinner they provided for us, I went to sleep in my single hotel room-glad I wouldn’t have to wake up until around 11 a.m.

Later, I woke up to Katie (Haughey) pounding on my door. Apparently our flight has now been changed to 3:30 am and we had to rush.

Once we got to the airport, we waited about three more hours until we finally left JFK. The actual flight was a little more than 15 hours but really wasn’t too bad, since I had several people to talk to and some interesting movies to watch.

Once we landed in Shanghai, we took one more plane to Jinan where we met Professor Niu Shutian. Then after a quick bus ride we were finally in Shandong University of Technology!

— Deanna Barnes, junior art history major