Staging

We received the email about staging today! Nothing too terribly exciting, but it's nice to finally have some concrete details about going to China. I called to make my plane reservations, and I have a 8am flight out of Atlanta. We have a four-hour orientation that day in San Francisco, then we leave at 5 am the next morning for Beijing, have a short layover, then fly to Chengdu. Whew! That's 20 hours in the air of 48 on three flights!

I'm a little surprised that the orientation/staging thing is actually only four hours. It used to be a couple days, but they're cutting everything down to conserve funds, or so I hear. Anyhow, I'm sure it will be fine, and I'm looking forward to visiting San Francisco--I've heard it's lovely.