LA to Toronto to Beijing to Chungdu NEW CHINA Part 1

Alright so i have tried to start this blog about 4 times now, and its not that I don't want to write it is just i have this thing about the introduction to a story. I have always had a hard time start the BEGINNING of a story when i am writing. But I am preparing some tea in my new fricken awesome tea mug and I am feeling the writing bug biting. So here goes....

I have a friend, Marcus, who is living and working in China with a house church. His mom, due to work, flies very often and has acquired a bit of flyer miles, so much so that she said, "Here is a ticket, go hang out with my son", and who am I to go against the wishes of a mother, right? So the itinerary was this,
June 18th
10:30 pm LAX to TORONTO
2:00 pm TORONTO to BEIJING

Ok i know this is not the greatest of flight schedules, but hey its a free ticket and well, i have a friend in Toronto so I thought it would be kinda cool.

The 17th was the last day of school and the 18th was a teacher clean up day. I bsically worked from 8am to 2pm, packed and bought supplies for the kids i would be helping and then got to LAX around 6:30. After a little (but fricken EXPENSIVE) bite to eat I got on the plane. It was Air Canada and I was pretty happy going over. I arrived in Toronto and then realized that, "Hey i don't have my cell phone, meaning i can't call my friend in Canada! Nor anyone else I know because i didn't memorize their numbers!" (That is what a cell phone is for!) So after some searching I find a computer and got the numbers i need. I meet up with my friend, Amy, who was a missionary in China when i was there. We had some coffee and had a killed a few hours just catching up with each others lives. I didn't get a chance to get out of the airport as it was too expensive to take the quick bus to Toronto and well, i didn't have time to take the regular bus. So I said a goodbye to Amy and then got on the plane to Beijing, again, Air Canada.
Now at this point and time i was wondering how we were going to get to Beijing. I mean, would i back track across America to Beijing, or would i be taking the long route over Europe and Asia? Well neither. Thanks to whole world being round thing, we went over the arctic circle! It was amazing. Anytime i would open my window I would look over pure white snow and stunning blue sky.
*Side note, now from LAX to Beijing it was around 30+ hours of time in Airports and planes. So here is a little bit of what I listened to to keep me entertained. Please Enjoy.


I arrived in Beijing around 7pm. I met Marcus and Alex (Marcus' girlfriend) and we caught a taxi to his place. The air was hot and well, when we rolled down the windows it stung my eyes. Beijing is not known for its amazing air quality. That first night we went out to eat, and then I hit a wall of jet lag and hit the hay.

The next morning we went to church and I met the people who would be going to Chengdu and a friend from when i was in JingZhou. The rest of the day I basically spent with Marcus and Alex getting things ready to leave for Chengdu and then had dinner with Marcus and Julia Rodriguez. Marcus and Julia are missionaries in China working with the sister church that Marcus and Alex are a part of. They are well loved friends and our time was great. We ended the night at McDonalds playing Settlers of Catan. It was a good time.

Now i have yet to fully explain what I was going to do in Chengdu.


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I was told before I left that the church that Marcus has been working with 'adopted' about 9 families affected by the earthquake last year. These families all have children that have either lost a limb(s) or were badly injured from being buried in rubble. The church was going to put on a week long camp for these kids and their families at hostel in the city of Chengdu. It literally came about only 2 weeks before i left so it was kinda a surprise, but it I was excited. Marcus and Alex were going to go a day early so that Marcus could meet Alex's dad, who lives in Chengdu, for the 1st time. I went with them to make it easier in getting to Chengdu.


Ok that is a bit for now, I will write more tomorrow night about what we did in Chengdu and then getting back to Beijing and LAX.

Allan