china recap

as mentioned in my last post, i was recently in china for work....here's a brief "recap" of my experience {yeah....so much for blogging while i was there!} .

• it's really hard being away from my husband after the excitement of getting married + finally being able to truly live together. people say that absence makes the heart go fonder, but...i don't buy it. i do enjoy my job + the benefits of traveling, but i miss my husband immensely...plus the 12 hour time difference doesn't really help either {okay, enough of the "sob story"...}
• HRC + her crew stayed at my hotel while visiting beijing...i ate breakfast "with" the secret service. {okay, maybe not "with" them, but we were in the same restaurant - so, as far as i'm concerned...it counts}
• another female coworker + i were stranded in the rain for about an hour because we refused to pay "foreigner" cab prices. the cab drivers wanted to charge us 2600% more than a normal cab ride {13RMB/2USD versus 340RMB/50USD} back to our hotel because they "knew" we were stranded + it was raining. we ended up calling our hotel + having them bring a car to get us...which ended up costing "us" about 300RMB/45USD {i'm not good at simple math, so if my calculations aren't right - i'm cool with it. just know...they tried to charge us too much...}
• i did no sightseeing at all - none - except for seeing the "bird's nest/national stadium" and the "aquatic center/water cube" every day to + from the office. i went to dinner with coworkers a few times, but i spent most of my time sleeping the weekend i was there...and it was GREAT! the hubby really tried to encourage me to get out, but i guess i was fine with catching up on my zzzzz's because i knew that i would be coming back in june...AND i'd already been the china - different city, of course, but still
• the ride to + from the office was EASILY the worst part of being there...it would take between 45mins to an hour + a half to get there, depending on traffic...there was really no way around it
• i almost missed my connecting flight from tokyo back home because my first flight from beijing was delayed. i had twenty mins to deboard my flight, go through security, find my gate, go through security {again}, then board. i made it. lucky delta