My journey began at 8am yesterday..or the day before....well the 28th. Here in China it's the 30th so it's semi confusing. I first stopped in Atlanta, ate the worst pizza known to man and then flew to Seattle. From the plane Seattle looked gorgeous! I wish I would have been able to go explore before catching my flight to Beijing. At the Seattle airport I met up with 11 of the other students. The flight itself was fine. It was long and cramped, but what else can you expect for an international flight.
We took a bus from the airport to our dorm. I didn't see much, but what I did see was very Americanized. As I saw Hyatt hotels, Crowne Plaza hotels, an Ikea (Yay!!!!), McDonald's and KFC.. I didn't get into my dorm room until 2am today.. which was 2pm Ohio time. I lucked out with a roommate because I was able to request a Japanese girl as a roommate. I figured this was the best option because we can use Japanese, Chinese and a little English in order to try to communicate, hopefully combining those three languages we can understand one another. In total I slept an hour and half (maybe). I woke up bright an early at 5am.
The bathrooms here are very different. Each of our dorm rooms has our own. You walk in there is the sink to the right, the toilet straight ahead and the shower to the left. What makes the bathroom different is the fact that the entire room is the shower there is no defined shower , the shower nozzle is also hand held. You have to be very careful as to not get you towel and clothes soaking wet.
This morning we went to the bank to exchange our money, since the exchange places were closed in the airport when we had arrived. It was very confusing. All of our Chinese is so bad and none of the tellers could speak English. Our first real meal in China was delicious! I don't know what any of it was called (beside the rice), but that doesn't matter too much. We also went shopping for necessities. I got 4 bottles of water (as the tap water here is highly unsafe), 2 other aloe and tea based drinks, laundry soap, hangers, toilet paper, a notebook, pen, and pencil and paid a whopping 44 RMB..which is approximately $6.60. Yup super cheap! Tonight we are going to a restaurant together without a native Chinese speaker..so this may be interesting.
I found out today that Blogspot is also apparently blocked due to the great firewall of China...however, we have found proxy sites that allow us to break through this wall. Some have also been able to log into facebook, I however have not been so lucky. I was however (and obviously) able to get into my blog. So hopefully that means I will be able to keep posting and updating my adventures!
Eventually, I will also post pictures, but I have not taken any worth while pictures yet. Sometime today I plan on taking pictures from my dorm room window, which is on the 13th floor. From my window you can get an interesting perspective of Beijing. I won't ruin it, other than to say it unlike I imagined...it's different and well I guess you'll see eventually!
I also encourage you to email me, just in case something happens and it becomes even more difficult to get onto Blogspot. My email is ah747007@ohio.edu. I hope to hear from all of you soon! I miss you guys already!!!
XOXO,
-M
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Day from Hell
Day two, to sum it up, has been frustrating.
Jet lag was my enemy last night and I fell asleep at 10pm.I managed to sleep most of the night only waking briefly at 3:45am. I woke up at 7:30am, luckily, since my alarm on my phone seems to not make noise when going off. I dressed quickly and made it to the lobby around 7:48. Upon arrival in the lobby I found that everyone had already left. I quickly left and went to class. Well, tried to go to class. I left the dorm turned right onto the street and walked straight crossed a big road and then walked a little further. I stopped looked around and realized that I was not in the right place. I was not even on the University campus anymore. I traveled back in the same direction called the director of the program and she told my to make a right at the gate before the dorm. Unfortunately, I made turned too early. I turned around finally made it to the next gate, finally the correct gate. Found Tao Laoshi and made it to class, a half an hour late. Great first impression.
Class itself was equally frustrating. I realize that the Chinese program at Ohio University has spoiled us and in return has left us completely unprepared. We cannot order food let alone ask directions or hold any sort of conversation. Our teachers speak only Chinese and when we are confused on the meaning of a word, they are happy to explain it, in Chinese. This will be good in the long run, however, for now it will be a great challenge to figure out exactly what is going on.
After class we had a group lunch and met our language partners. My language partner seems to be very un-talkative. At least with me. The food once again was amazing! I was glad that Tao Laoshi had pre-ordered the food since supper last night on our own was a mess. From now own I plan on eating with a smaller more intimate group.
Now I plan on doing a lot of studying because I'm expected to memorize 40 words by tomorrow. When more happens I will write again and hopefully everything will be a lot more positive.
Jet lag was my enemy last night and I fell asleep at 10pm.I managed to sleep most of the night only waking briefly at 3:45am. I woke up at 7:30am, luckily, since my alarm on my phone seems to not make noise when going off. I dressed quickly and made it to the lobby around 7:48. Upon arrival in the lobby I found that everyone had already left. I quickly left and went to class. Well, tried to go to class. I left the dorm turned right onto the street and walked straight crossed a big road and then walked a little further. I stopped looked around and realized that I was not in the right place. I was not even on the University campus anymore. I traveled back in the same direction called the director of the program and she told my to make a right at the gate before the dorm. Unfortunately, I made turned too early. I turned around finally made it to the next gate, finally the correct gate. Found Tao Laoshi and made it to class, a half an hour late. Great first impression.
Class itself was equally frustrating. I realize that the Chinese program at Ohio University has spoiled us and in return has left us completely unprepared. We cannot order food let alone ask directions or hold any sort of conversation. Our teachers speak only Chinese and when we are confused on the meaning of a word, they are happy to explain it, in Chinese. This will be good in the long run, however, for now it will be a great challenge to figure out exactly what is going on.
After class we had a group lunch and met our language partners. My language partner seems to be very un-talkative. At least with me. The food once again was amazing! I was glad that Tao Laoshi had pre-ordered the food since supper last night on our own was a mess. From now own I plan on eating with a smaller more intimate group.
Now I plan on doing a lot of studying because I'm expected to memorize 40 words by tomorrow. When more happens I will write again and hopefully everything will be a lot more positive.
Friday, June 11, 2010
It's the Final Countdown
In two weeks time I will be in China. I'll update my life here. I won't be facebooking do to the Great Fire Wall of China.
XOXO,
-M
XOXO,
-M
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