FAI2 (place holder for character) - Flight

12:07 PM - Toronto Time. We've been airbourne since 10 AM. Funny thing is that the plane danced around the runway until it found itself a nice spot. It paused ... Took a deep breath and when ready it took off. No slow runway build up just a blast of it's hot burners and off we went. It took about 45 seconds to get to take off speed. Once there we could feel a slight lift and then we were airbourne. I think we were heading north off the runway. Once in the air the plane (Boeing 777) leaned left and we took a scenic cross view of TO as we angled westward for the long flight.
From my vantage point, just behind the wingspan, I calculate the wingspan to be about 80 ft. across. It's funny because as we were crossing the terminal on our way to the tarmac(?) we witnessed a truck pulling one of these 777s to a hangar bay. These planes can't be all that heavy to be pulled like that. From the terminal the planes looked like they've had some good wear on their many flights to countless destinations.
Looking at the interior you can't detect the fastening elements which hold the parts together. There are 44 rows with 9 seats per row. That works out to 396 seats on the plane (I wonder why they call it a 777?). There are 4 exits both on the left side and right side. So 4 compartments make up the plane.
Elaine (my sister) drove us to the terminal this morning. I could here mom wake first and came upstairs to wake Elaine. I was woken already about that time (5:45 AM). (to be continued ... )

準備 - Prepare

10:36 PM - I've got all my stuff ready to leave now. 媽媽 has been on my case to get ready for a week now. I'm too old to be bossed around by her - 我是大人吧. 對不對? LOL
Don't worry we won't fight that much when I start getting frustrated I'll just pretend that I don't understand. 對不起我听不懂.

I made a list of all the things I'm bringing on my trip.
- Slacks (4)
- Socks (9 pairs)
- Shirts - tshirt, collar short sleeve (8)
- undergarments
- Blackberry (travel logging)
- nokia phone (can I get free Wifi easily?)
- Hong kong map and Beijing map (borrowed from Elaine-sister)
- Camera, video camera and power adapters for each
- Toothbrush, etc.

I got my Nokia to work with a free instant messenger but the keypad is terrible. But the blackberry has no wifi so I'm stuck. But I did a search for Wifi BB and there are 3. The one with a full keypad are 8320 and 8820. I'll look for it in HK.

New blog

5:53 PM - I wanted a blog of some sort. A travel blog when I leave for China. This will be my first trip out of North America so I wanted to document it in some way. I bought a Blackberry in December (good n' cheap $79 - 7290 model) so that I could blog on the go. Of course I won't be able to upload it with any convenience. I suppose it'll have to do. We can't have everything you know!
I've read that they have convenient ways of blogging. Mobile blogging, where you take pictures and send text messages to your blog site, on the go. It's quite brilliant. It allows for quick and dirty records of your daily activities (not that it's vitally important to record such things). I'd love to have that capability (if only I could travel ALOT more!).
中文
我是張恩華。
我不會說中文。