My journey of smiles in China!

My long journey to China began August 15th at 1:55pm en route to Seattle, WA. I met the nicest lady on the plane to Seattle and once we found out that both our layovers were 3 hours, we decided to get dinner together. She was on her way to Alaska and me, to China! Finally, 7pm rolled around and I boarded the 747 plane to Beijing, China! I was blessed to sit once again by a very nice man, Mark, on his way to Beijing to give a talk at a conference. He works for the U.S. National Forestry Service and has traveled all around the world. We had a great time talking about various destinations around the world. Many I have been to but plenty I dream of going to! I told him of my worry that I didn't know who was picking me up at the airport in Beijing and that is was truly an adventure I was embarking on. He simply told me, "everything will work out", and I took that as my motto the rest of the trip. And everything did work out! Jordi, with Operation Smile picked me up at the airport. We waited for Jose and Wendy to come in on their flight from Detroit and then we were off to the hotel.

 

As we headed up north, the sky grew lighter as the time grew later!

Beijing, China! Waiting for our turn to jump in a Taxi!

Wendy, the Pediatrician; Jose, an OR nurse; and Jordi, one of the coordinators and the awesome girl who pickd me up from the airport! Team Kashgar was compiled of volunteers from America, Australia, Eastern China, and locals from Kashgar.

We stayed at the Marriott Beijing Northeast our first night, yet we didn't arrive until 1am. I slept a lot on the plane and so I decided to enjoy the amenities of my personal room. Once in my room, I had a hard time figuring out how the light switches work. For some reason, I've never experienced a hotel that requires the room card to stay in a slot just inside the door to keep the lights and AC on...and I've traveled a lot! So after 5 minutes or so, I figured the card had to stay in the slot and then I settled in, turned on the TV, watched some hilarious Chinese soap operas, cartoons, and news! I explored the bathroom, turned on the water in the tub and took a nice hot bath! Our flight to Kashgar left around 9am and so we were at breakfast by 7am. Yet, this was my first morning of many to come in which cereal, bagels, chocolate milk, nor waffles wouldn't be on the menu. Instead there was fish, noodles, cucumbers, carrots, rice soup, fruit, and juice. Oh China!

 

My personal bed in my Marriott room in Beijing!

The amazing bathroom, complete with a shower, tub, and sink! I was spoiled! P.s. the rooms at the Marriott hotels for were complimentary because Marriott had chosen Operation Smile as their charity of the year. Most likely since it's the 20th Anniversary of Operation Smile in China.

One of the cartoons I watched, complete with Chinese subtitles!

At the Beijing airport! Wendy, Jose, Janis, and I waiting to board the plane to Kashgar...another 6 hour flight!

I wasn't prepared for these...squatty pottys! My first experience!

I knew I'd see more of these guys! Outside the hotel in Kashgar.

For the Chinese, the opening ceremonies is a big deal! Everything was in Chinese so it was pointless for the Australian volunteers and us Americans, but it was still a cool experience. Note, see the local nurses, yes they wear white nursing hats and dresses!

Myself and the Austrailan volunteers! Karen, a PACU nurse; Natalie, my roommate and a pre-post OP nurse; and Joan, an OR nurse.