We have arrived.

We have arrived.  Just under 24 hours from our house to our hotel and just over a year from our arrival in China last summer,  we are back in this parallel universe to our Minnesota lives. As we drove in the van with our guide and driver away from the airport,  Dave and I both thought it felt like we had picked right back up where we had left off and that it did not feel like a year since we had been there last. It all seems so familiar. 

We are here in Shanghai,  population  just over 23 million.  We drove through a sea of highrise apartment buildings for nearly an hour along the elevated highway. We then left the elevated road and were back down in the street life we remembered. 

Last night we settled in our room and then headed out in search of a bite to eat before we could crash for the night. We got noodle soup bowls and lychees  from a couple of shops around the corner and headed back to our hotel.   We ate our noodles and wondered what HanRui was doing now.   Freaking out? Or excited? Or both?

It is 3 a.m. now and my body says that it is not.  It is amazing that we can travel half way around the world (over 7000 miles) in one day, but it very hard on the human body.  If only I could check my legs in an overhead luggage bin on the plane,  then maybe I could sleep on a plane. 

Today is our rest day.  We meet up with our guide,  Maggie, after breakfast, go exchange wads of cash and take a little tour around our hotel neighborhood. It is good that we have one rest day before meeting HanRui. 

More later.....

Marnie