Made it!

What a way to start a trip!

We started early Saturday morning at the University of Pittsburgh. With backpacks and suitcases in hand, we loaded the bus at 6:00 am and headed to the Pittsburgh Airport for our first flight. We checked in and said goodbye to our bigger luggage, hoping to see it on the other side. We made it through security and found our gate. First meal of the trip.......... Auntie Anne's! Not a bad kickoff breakfast. We hopped on our first flight to Chicago; this was also the shortest leg at only an hour and a half. Pretty uneventful flight, though our arrival started us thinking about the time change and that trying to keep track would be pointless. Our short layover in O'Hare consisted of our last meal in a America, deep dish pizza, and charging electronics for the long flight ahead.

SIXTEEN. HOUR. FLIGHT.
You may wonder what one does on a plane for 16 hours, and the answer is basically the equivalent of any college student procrastination: watching movies, sleeping, and eating. I was lucky enough to catch some sleep early on in the flight thanks to some cold medicine. Our first meal was a flight classic: chicken or pasta. Around this time, I hopped on the screen on the back of the seat in front of me and watched Whiplash (fantastic movie) and Interstellar (not as good as the hype, though it may be due to the little screen). I also watched the map of our flight path, which happened to go through Canada, over Alaska, down through Russia, and finally across China. I made sure to get up several times (mom), drank plenty of water (mom), and went to the bathroom (mom). The flight later included a small sandwich snack and a final meal before landing: eggs or a different kind of chicken. The flight really wasn't as bad as most thought it would be, but I was definitely ready to get off the "big metal tube" when we landed in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Airport was a very nice reprieve from the flight, and I was thankful for the longer layover. At 6:00 pm in Hong Kong, 12 hours ahead of Pittsburgh, we found "real Chinese food" (for an airport) for dinner. The first international meal: Singapore noodles and shrimp, another good sign of what's to come. We also discovered Pocari Sweat, which looks like water, but turns out to be a sweet Japanese sports drink, still pretty good.  We boarded one more flight for the last leg of our journey: Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC). This relatively short flight, compared to previous trek, was a push to stay awake to line up with our destination time zone. One more flight meal, chicken or pork, and listening to some what I'll assume to be Vietnamese music, we finally reached HCMC! We breezed through customs, grabbed everyone's bags, and found Dr. Berman waiting for us in the balmy 84 degrees F, 80% humidity, weather. We got on a very nice bus and at long last made it to the Victory Hotel in Saigon (side note: Saigon is the older name for HCMC and is more commonly used by locals). I got to my room with my roommate for the next two weeks, Pete, cranked up the AC, and took a much needed shower. It's now 2:30 am and I have to wake up in a few hours for our first day in country. I'm excited and ready for one amazing trip!

GOOD MORNING VIETNAM!!!!