Arrived in China!

I'm here!
I arrived in Wuhan about an hour ago. I really can't describe how long and boring the flight was. I flew out of Ottawa at 7am and first had a 6 hour flight to Vancouver. It went by very quick as I got a nice glimpse of Canada. The prairies with just endless nothingness and the rockies which reach up so high you feel as if the plane is low to the ground when really your at 30,000 feet. It really was an enjoyable flight. I got off in Vancouver and I was very excited because i've always wanted to go there. too bad I was stuck in the airport but holy shit Vancouver has a gigantic airport. It took me about half an hour to walk through all of it and get to my other terminal.

Next was the 13 hour flight to Shanghai. I boarded the plane with mostly chinese people and white businessmen and took off for the longest flight of my life. Ofcourse my seat was beside a baby, who at first cried incessantly but later became quite the source of entertainment as I made faces and smiled at him.
I watched 3 movies on the plane. Catch me if you can, Iron man 2 and quite possibly the worst Bruce Willis movie i've ever seen, Cop out. Even after all those movies I still wasn't even done half the trip. I attempted to sleep, I read, I listened to music but still the flight kept going. Somewhere over Russia we had a huge bout of turbulence and that kept me fearfully occupied for awhile. Finally after 13 hours, 3 meals, 3 movies and a sore ass I landed at the Shanghai airport.
As i got off the plane I felt like i had landed in hawaii or some tropical place. MAN it was humid, sticky and hot. I was almost immediately sweating as I walked through the terminal. And what a terminal this was. I grabbed my bags and headed down a hallway that was labeled "domestic flights." I figured this was where i had to go until i realized that this section of the airport was completely deserted for no apparent reason. Heading down the same empty hallway was a man I met who told me he was coming to China to learn chinese. I asked if he could use said skill to get us where we have to go. We stuck together and eventually got turned around to the opposite side of the airport where we were supposed to go in the first place.
I had previously thought the Vancouver airport was big but the Shanghai airport put it to shame. I was totally lost and had no idea how or where to check-in for my next flight to Wuhan. Eventually I asked for help (luckily everyone speaks english at the airport) and along the way met Kyle. We stuck together also as I had lost chinese speaking guy some time ago. Kyle was from some town in Oregon and he was also going to China to teach english for the first time. We sat at the airport bar and had some rather expensive drinks. I figured my flight wasn't until 4:30 so I had some time to spare.
After ditching Kyle and going through customs I re-checked my ticket. My flight was boarding at 4:05. Oh shit. It was 4:27. I began running through the rest of the Shanghai airport at full sprint, almost knocking over an asian family and looking like a psychopath. Even running it still took me a good 10 minutes to get through the rest of the terminal. I was sure i was late but as I arrived there was a sign posted in terrible english informing me that the flight was delayed an hour. Thank you jesus. 3 miserable hours later I landed in Wuhan City.

I was the only non-chinese person on the entire flight and getting off the plane I felt very alone. Nobody seemed to speak any english even the people working at the airport. Thankfully, I was greeted by 3 lovely chinese girls holding a sign saying Corey. My students in canada usually never spell it right and i was surprised that they had. They had been waiting 3 hours at the airport for me. I met up with them along with another foreign teacher they had picked up named Bobby from Chicago. He was also here with his Dad, they had been travelling throughout eastern europe before finally arriving in Wuhan. We all piled into a small mini/hippie van with no seatbelts and a driver who spoke no english and headed off to the residence, an hour from the airport. I said goodbye to the sky back in Shanghai. In Wuhan you can never see the sun or stars. yay pollution.
When I say driving in China is crazy it is very hard to explain without actually experiencing it. The drive through downtown Wuhan City was insane. Everything was lit up, the chinese apparently put flashing lights on everything. Even the shittiest worn down residence building, they just threw a couple flashy lights on the top and bang, nice building. And then there was the people. Massive swarms of people. Half of which were driving mopeds and crossing the busy street with no regard for cars whatsoever. Never before have i seen a 4 lane street packed with about 6 cars across.
We swerved, honked and narrowly missed pedestrians, mopeds and other cars as we made our way through flashy downtown. I feared for my life, this was unbelievable how the chinese drive. It seems that their is no right of way or signalling, you announce your presence by simply honking loudly and moving in. Cars would dart into our lane and people would jump or drive their mopeds right out in front of us.
After a terrifying drive I finally arrived at Wuchang primary school. Where I would be living on campus.
We pulled up to the gate and the driver just pushed down on his horn and didn't let go for a good 5 minutes. An old chinese man came hobbling out in nothing but his underwear and let us in after yelling something in chinese which i'm sure wasn't pleasant. I got into my apartment, met one of the other teachers on my floor named shawn and almost immediately crashed. I hadn't slept a second on the plane and had been awake for 26 hours and gone through god knows how many different time zones.
need. sleep. tomorrow will be my first day in China!
oh yea i figured out how to upload pictures. you can view them here www.flickr.com/photos/coreyinchina