travel notes

It was a looong trip, but a few nice things that happened along the way made it seem shorter. Namely the day I spent in China.

Since I had a fifteen hour stopover in Guangzhou and I've never been to China I decided to get a transit visa and go out of the airport. Also one of my friends' family lives there and he wanted me to bring some things to them. I assumed that one of them would pick the stuff up from me, direct me to some nice places to look around and spend the day and that would be that. Instead his mom spent the whole day with me. His brother met us for lunch. And when his mom heard I hadn't slept at all the previous night, since my flight was at 11:00 p.m., she took me to her friend's appartment so I could shower and rest for a few hours.

I went on to the next leg of the journey feeling much more refreshed, and very happy that I'd gotten to see at least a little bit of China.

Landing in Los Angeles was a bit strange. I think it's been about seven years since I'd been back there. The last couple times I visited my family I went to South Africa. Before even if it had been a year or two  arriving at the airport always felt a little like coming home. This time it didn't at all. It all seemed very foreign. And it was cold outside the aiport. I don't remember April evenings being so cold before.

Now I'm just resting, getting over jet lag, and enjoying the time with my mom.