And so China began...

It was a strange feeling to have been home for less than 16 hours and be leaving again. Yet I did. This time though the group was drastically different as was the country we were traveling to. The group I was with for the flight (half of the group was staying for five extra weeks to run a camp in China) was mainly males and many of them were still in high school. Of the whole group eight were female, twelve were male, and the age range for the most part was between 14 and 28. It was strange to have so much testosterone around me. It was also strange in that there were people who were in charge rather than having everyone be independent. In some ways though I think that the dynamics of the group helped us to bond more easily. We flew to Chicago first and had a two hour layover there then we flew 13.5 hours to Shanghai. I personally liked the one long flight and it's done rather than two long flights that I had for South Africa. After arriving we got to ride in the Maglev, a light rail-esque train that goes at 431 kilometers per hour (about 260 mph). From there we took the subway to our hotel. The subway was fun to see, it was super crowded just like I expected. That night we got to go to the Shanghai Community Church's Youth Service. Though for them youth is between the ages of 20 and 40. It was interesting to see. The church was packed and everything was in mandarin. I'm sure had I been awake enough to pay much attention I would have liked it more, but I was exhausted. Luckily, soon after our night ended and we got to sleep.