Lack of Shanghai

Our first taste of China:

Being stuck on the boat for an extra 10 hours. We are currently sitting on the Yanktzee River. The Chinese River Pilot who was supposed to pick us up at midnight last night so that we would be to port by 6am never came and is delayed so we are at a standstill outside the port. Supposedly it is a 6 hour tow into the harbor. We are projected to get into port at 6pm and off the ship by 8pm. My field program is obviously cancelled and now everyone is hanging out on the ship- its actually kind of fun and a good excuse to get some sleep, get some homework done, and do a bit more planning and just relaxing. no use getting down on the fact we are missing a day in China...

Our plan is to get off the ship as soon as we can and head straight for the Bund- a walking pedestrian shoreline that overlooks Shanghai and get dinner and drinks at Dong Feng which was recommended by Bridget's dad! then wake up at 5:30am to make it to the train station to get to Beijing! 6 hour train ride then we will head to the hotel, check in, and head out to sight see! Then the next day we have a private tour guide for the Great Wall and dinner at Da Dong Duck (all recommendations by my mom!)

We made a bit of an error when making flights from Beijing to Hong kong (we were going to go at 1am and travel throughout the night but we did it on the wrong day which would have left us only with 7 hours in Beijing and no time to see the great wall etc, so bridget's mom came to the rescue and changed our flights to the day after) now we will have an extra day in Beijing but we have tons of stuff to do, and we will be able to spend the day seeing Tiennemen Square, the forbidden city and temple of heaven and explore more of Beijing! Then off to Hong Kong for 2 full days! Bridget used to live in Hong Kong so she has tons of awesome stuff for us to do! (islands off hong kong with hikes, monasteries, biggest outdoor budda in the world, Michelin star restaurant we have a reservation at, etc!!) Hopefully the weather holds and its not too rainy or cold though!

Shout out to marge (hjort) for the comments and emails!! and Amanda too- Hi!!
thanks for the comments from my family too!!
to answer a few questions: liz- we don't go to Cambodia:( but we have 6 days in vietnam which is going to be incredible! our february is only 8 days of class: Japan, 2 days of school then china, then 2 days of school then Vietnam then 2 days then Singapore (seeing mommy!!!), then 3 days (one of which is a "study day") then Burma with mommy and daddy!! all of those ports are 6 days long expect for Singapore which is 2 days. going to be the most amazing month ever!

ill post later!