It’s been about a year and a half since I was last in the city, but on the whole, things feel almost the same. Granted, this is the first time I’ve ever been here in the winter, but staying with family makes it feel like home, and that’s something I’ll always be grateful for. My girlfriend says that I should blog more, considering that I do pay to maintain this domain, and what better time to start than now? Since I’m only here for two weeks and the primary purpose of my visit is to see family, I will have plenty of time to write about my experiences here, though much of it will be made up of food and people.

The flight from Newark to Beijing was a quick one. (Okay, 14 hours in the air is no walk in the park, but it certainly seemed to pass by pretty quickly.) I’ve learned a few things from flying so frequently, and I’m sharing a list of things below that I’ve found to make my flying experience as comfortable as possible.

1. Always have your documents in a readily accessible place. It’ll save you a lot of time and prevent unnecessary frustration.
2. Know how to pass security quickly. Wear shoes that you can take off and put back on easily. Don’t put a lot of stuff in your pockets. Make sure your laptop is easily removable from your backpack. And if don’t want to deal with the pain of removing your belt and putting it back on, just don’t wear one. Small things add up, trust me.
3. Bring a variety of entertainment. Yes, I did watch 6 movies on the plane, but I also read a magazine, listened to music, and read through part of a book. Bottom line is, the more you keep yourself occupied, the faster the flight is going to seem. And if you’re one of those people who can sleep anywhere, that’s even better.
4. Don’t skip out on meals. Airplane food is notorious for being bad, but in my recent experiences, the cuisine on international flights has improved immensely to the point where I now look forward to eating on the plane. On yesterday’s trip, I managed to time all my naps perfectly so that every time I woke up, I would eat a meal, then go back to watching movies. Rinse and repeat.
5. Don’t wear contacts on a long flight. They’ll probably dry up on the trip and you’ll have to remove them anyway.
6. The easy way to deal with jet-lag: stay up and don’t sleep until a reasonable hour. The most common mistake that people make is sleeping too early, which causes them to wake up too early…and thus the vicious cycle continues. Get it right the first night and you’ll be able to get over jet-lag much faster.

That’s all I have for now, hope everyone found it useful 😀