Flight to Shanghai

After all this time of waiting for this day to arrive, and the stressful hours leading up to the trip due to the headache of packing it is finally here. Due to the excitement of the trip both Matthew Silvia and I could not sleep until around 0100 and we had to wake up at 0200 in order to arrive at Logan International Airport at 0330. I slept at Matthew's house since his family and him were kind enough to pick me up from Lynn, Massachusetts on Friday February 24th after finishing my two month internship with General Electric. Of course the whole night we kept discussing the trip and how excited we were about it as well as packing and unpacking to make sure we did not forget anything.

Upon arriving at Logan International we ran into the rest of the cadets that would be attending Shanghai Maritime University with us as well as their parents who were there to send them off. Although my mom could not be there due to the fact she lives in Miami, Florida she still made sure she called and instructed me (did not suggest) to pray for a safe flight, we all have to love mother's and their protective instincts. Around 0400 we all started to check in at the kiosk with our passports and had to wait until about 0430 to check our bags in so we can go through security. Of course all the parents wanted to take pictures so I asked them to take a couple on my phone so I could send them to my family. After taking pictures and saying good bye, fourteen of us started the next chapter in our lives with two other cadets already arriving at Shanghai Maritime University the day before us.

The trip from Boston, Massachusetts to Toronto, Canada was about one hour and forty-five minutes which was really quick it felt as if we closed our eyes to take a small nap and we were already there. This was probably the easiest part of the trip since we now had to wait four hours until our departure from Toronto to Shanghai, China. Now the time had come and we border the Air Canada 727 plane which was comfortable with our personal television to enjoy. We knew the trip would be long however we had no real idea how long it really would feel. I watched three movies before I decided to take a nap and upon waking up I figured we would only have three or four hours to go and to my surprise we still had ten hours. All that excitement everyone had soon turned into "when will we arrive already" since it felt like the time did not wind down, however the trip was still fun.

This option to view the tracking of the flight was both good and bad since we could see how much longer to arrive and how much longer until we were able to get up and walk around. This allowed us to bond and gel better before arriving since we had not seen each other in about two months so to connect before we arrived was great. Once we touched down it was a great feeling because we had finally arrived in China which to us was still crazy. We only have each other to depend on now that we are on the opposite side of the world from our family and close friends. The group of cadets that were chosen are great strong minded young individuals so there would be no problems. Now that we were in the airport we had to clear customs and find our Shanghai Maritime University friends as well as Captain Belle from Massachusetts Maritime Academy. To our surprise a couple of last years Chinese Exchange students where at the airport to greet us which was a great gesture since they all work now and had to take time off to welcome us. When we arrived at the University we met our new roommates, my roommate's name is Shawn and he happens to be the monitor (cadet in charge) of the whole Exchange program which I find pretty cool. I am happy about the opportunity to be in another country and cannot wait to share my experiences with my new friends.After all this time of waiting for this day to arrive, and the stressful hours leading up to the trip due to the headache of packing it is finally here. Due to the excitement of the trip both Matthew Silvia and I could not sleep until around 0100 and we had to wake up at 0200 in order to arrive at Logan International Airport at 0330. I slept at Matthew's house since his family and him were kind enough to pick me up from Lynn, Massachusetts on Friday February 24th after finishing my two month internship with General Electric. Of course the whole night we kept discussing the trip and how excited we were about it as well as packing and unpacking to make sure we did not forget anything.
- 2/c Eduardo Ramos