A New Journey Begins

For the Zeng kids, school was out June 5th, on a Thursday.  By Friday, we were already on our way up to Toronto to catch a series of flights to China.  On the way, we stopped by Grandma's place.  Even though we only stayed there for one night, it was still nice seeing Grandma, although she only left our house four days earlier to go back to her home.  Then we went over to Niagara falls, only this time we saw it from the American side.  The American side was definitely not as nice as the Canadian side and we didn't stay there that long, but I still wanted to see it.  The weather was breezy and a little sunny, which was nicely paired with the mist from the falls.

Our next stop was the Toronto Pearson International Airport, to catch a flight to the London Heathrow Airport in London, England.  Along the way, we stopped for some food at McDonalds.  It was interesting to see that they offered a specialty item; Poutine, which was McDonalds fries with gravy , cheese curds and maple syrup drizzled over it, topped with bacon. It was pretty good, although a bit greasy.  From there we continued and finally made it to the airport.  We had to wait about five hours for our flight.  Luckily, the airport offered free wifi and the five hours passed by very quickly.  My brothers and I streamed Netflix to watch The 100, a new show we're all hooked on right now.  Eventually, we boarded the plane and endured the six hour flight, which wasn't that bad, actually. There were many entertainment options that all of us well utilized.  The flight passed by in no time.  We had a quick layover, with another security check which was stressful.  The security in the UK is much more strict than in the U.S. and many people's bags were set aside for inspection including 3 of ours!  After the ordeal, we utilized the airports free wifi, and then we were back on a plane.  This time, our destination was Helsinki, Finland.  

This flight was only two hours and thirty minutes.  Everyone was exhausted by then, so we all napped on that flight.  The Baby was behaving surprisingly well the whole time.  Once we got off the plane, we rushed to get on our next and final flight to Beijing.  This flight would be about seven hours.  But since this flight, like our first flight is long,  there was a lot of free entertainment, although this selection was a bit more limited.  I was the most tired on this flight and probably the most impatient.  Once we arrived in Beijing, we not so quickly went through customs before getting bus tickets.  The bus isn't the ideal transportation but with 8 people, 3 large luggage, and each of us carrying one full backpack (the parents with two hand held luggage) the taxi couldn't fit all our stuff, so we took the bus.  The bus ride was around an hour due to the morning rush house and I slept through most of it.  

After getting off the bus, we hauled our stuff to our condo where it also doubles as Dad's office.   It was raining so we rushed to get there.  Father's office manager was there, waiting for us.  She went out to get umbrellas so we could all go to the police station  to register us.  After that, we all returned to the condo and let the jet leg take over .  We got some breakfast food, but it was really greasy so I didn't want any. I took a shower, since I was feeling gross, and the crashed. When I woke up, it was nearly one in the morning, local time.  I goofed around for nearly two hours when Father decided to take us all out to eat at this noodle shop he goes to a lot, which is open twenty-four hours, of course.  We took a long time to eat since the noodles were incredibly spicy.  Father definitely overestimated our abilities to eat spicy food, although the noodles were still good.  Mom and Dad enjoyed some beer that was super cheap!

Once we were done, we made our way back to the condo, stopping at a convenience store along the way and we stocked up on banana flavored milk and some ice cream.  They definitely had a variety of flavors, and even though some of the flavors seem weird, they're actually pretty good.  I got a corn flavor ice cream, and I really liked it, along with many of the other brothers.  Then we stayed in our condo until the sunrise, resting up for the rest of the day, which we planned to spend in the Forbidden City.