Preparing for China- Travel Plans

In Japan, I decided to haul a 60 pound bag around the subway system (50+ backpack, and a laptop bag on my person). That was for a semester.

When I went for a year, I think I did a very similar thing. The upside is that I had buses, organized help, and cars instead of subways.

This time, I'd rather take as little as possible. I'm planning to bring...

a roller carry-on.

It would be easier when switching flights (I have a 2 hour layover in LAX and I need to switch terminals and airlines, so I'm terrified of taking any more time than necessary). It would be easier when leaving, or hiring a cab, or waiting. It's a lot less stuff I have to worry about, too. I'm not taking my cell phone with me- instead, I have an ipod armed with Skype (and an alarm system, hello, alarm system, you'll be my bestest friend). I don't see that I need to take much more than a passport, wallet, clothes, medicine, a laptop, an ipod, and a kindle for reading. I'm sure Amazon and Apple will jump all over my desire to support their products, but the ipod is thin, light, and serves multiple purposes- it is an alarm, it has translation software (totally bought it for app access, ain't gunna lie), and it will act as a back-up computer if mine decides to die in China. The kindle is useful if I want reading, because I don't want to haul books with me if I can help it. Books are bulky and take up precious weight, kindles last ridiculously long, are thin, light, and if I had figured out before I bought mine that the 3G system bypasses the Great Firewall of China, I would have bought that version, too. Essentially, it maximizes the books I can take with me, and I see this as a giant plus.

The electronics will go with a spare set of clothes (minus pants) in a laptop bag, because my carry-on won't go through with me to Air China. But I can't picture what else I would need. Certainly, one does not need any more than a week's worth of clothes, a jacket, and mittens?

I will add I plan on sending my winter things through the mail- I'm not sure how cold it gets. Not due to temperature, but whether or not the place I stay has central heating. I didn't have it in Osaka, Japan, so I'm not going to deal with, "Ah, it'll be okay, I'm from much colder temperatures". The difference is huge when you compare having a guaranteed warm place with a place that is warm only underneath your piles of blankets.

The other thing I'm not thrilled about is my giant layover. I leave from DSM at about 8pm, arrive in Denver at 9:00. My next flight is then 45 minutes later (I'm more thrilled about having this the same airline, because that's really close in a time-frame setting), and I arrive in Lax at 11:20. I leave from terminal 2 (not quite opposite from where I arrive), at 1:40am, and arrive in Beijing at 5:20am.

I don't mind the overnight flights (lies, I have trouble on planes), but it's more of a crunch for time until I get on the plane in LAX. And then, will I be too excited to sleep? I dunno. By the time I take off in LAX, it will be 3:40am my normal time. Luckily, I have late-night Skype conversation training to always keep me prepared for late-night awakeness.

Beijing to final destination is actually a 7 hour layover. This is cool, because I'm going through customs, and whenever I take meds with me I always get nervous. I know I'll have a doctor's note for them, but I'm still crazy nervous for going through customs. On the upside, 7 hours means I'll have time to withdraw some money, adjust to listening to Chinese, and reading, (perhaps informing people I've arrived safely, who knows?). When I arrive at my final destination, I have an additional 4 hours and 30 minutes before the group I'm headed with's plane arrives. So long as they all arrive at 6:30pm, and none later.

Maybe I should bring travel snacks. hmmm. So I wish it was more evenly paced, but this was a very cheap option (even if I'm being reimbursed I have to front the cost now), and the other flight I was looking at gave me only 2 hours to make it through customs in a strange airport that I could arrive late at. It's possible Denver and LAX'll run late, too, but at least I'll be dealing with English, and there's still a chance I could catch my flight at 12:20pm in Beijing.