Arrival in Shanghai

As far as I can tell, I managed to pack everything I planned on bringing (more on this later). That's a minor success in and of itself. I was given a ticket for the business/first class lounge (Alitalia's) so I hung out in there for a while before the flight. I was starving, so I was pretty happy to find that not only did they have fancy little sandwiches, but there was wine and prosecco as well!The flight was delayed by half an hour, so boarding started at 4:30pm (NY time). It took until 6:15 for the plane to actually take off. Once airborne, I was treated to a selection of short videos for a while, including:

• A view of the airplane and the outside from a camera on the tail
• Safety info
• World Expo advertisements
• videos of women with strange constructions on their heads singing, apparently trying to out-Gaga Lady Gaga
• a montage of three white tourists having a great time while catching what seemed like every sight in China (of course including the Expo) and being terrible at eating soup dumplings.

None of this had any dubbing or subtitles in English. Eventually the movies began. 14 hours is a very long time, by the way.Some interesting English translations spotted:

• "Shanghai China. More discovery. More experience."
• "Duty makes better city. Duty makes better life."

A bit of sad news: remember the comment about not forgetting anything? I think I didn't but don't know because my luggage was left behind in New York, apparently along with an entire pallet of luggage that just never got loaded. There were lots of unhappy people. By this time tomorrow though, I should be all set.Plans for tomorrow? Sleep, then most likely exploring the Expo.