So for those of you who do not know, the Chinese government pays attention to what is being posted on the internet. They use a firewall, and many sites (the most notable being Facebook, Youtube and Twitter) are blocked by the government. So, since I am in China it took me a while to figure out how to get a VPN running on my computer so that I could create this blog. So the first two posts are mass e-mails I sent out. Also it might take me a while to figure out exactly how to post photos. So now I'm posting these old e-mails as updates.
"The plane rides were pretty uneventful. I stayed up and read Captian's Fury and Princeps' Fury. I was having problems focusing because I was sleep deprived and un-caffeinated. A guy on the plane complimented me on my Chinese. I don't know how to react to compliments in English, so I have decided to take the modest approach with compliments here. I would rather people underestimate my communication abilities than overestimate them. Also modesty is more culturally acceptable here. When I wasn't reading I was reading the Chinese subtitles that they had on the American films that they showed. I'm still not sure why they decided to do traditional characters on a plane that was going to mainland China, but it made my life a lot easier.
"The plane rides were pretty uneventful. I stayed up and read Captian's Fury and Princeps' Fury. I was having problems focusing because I was sleep deprived and un-caffeinated. A guy on the plane complimented me on my Chinese. I don't know how to react to compliments in English, so I have decided to take the modest approach with compliments here. I would rather people underestimate my communication abilities than overestimate them. Also modesty is more culturally acceptable here. When I wasn't reading I was reading the Chinese subtitles that they had on the American films that they showed. I'm still not sure why they decided to do traditional characters on a plane that was going to mainland China, but it made my life a lot easier.
I helped some other students after we got off the plane. They have never been to China before, so they weren't sure what they were supposed to do to get through customs, or where they were supposed to go. Beijing's airport is really nicely set up, it isn't confusing at all. Its a straight shot to get from the plane to taxis. Also all the signs are in simplified characters and english.
My room is larger than I thought it would be. It even has a fridge. I also am about 30 seconds away where I will need to do my laundry. I bought a card so I can do my laundry. It costs about 78 cents a load. They even imported a dryer. And there is a microwave available on this floor. I need to buy soap, toilet paper, towels, cups, a water boiler, laundry detergent and a cell phone. I would like to have most of those done today. My room has AC, a large TV, a fridge and a shower. The bathroom smells odd because of the minerals and stuff in the water. The bathroom gets really really slippery, and there is a sign that informs me I should be careful when I slide. The water pressure isn't really strong, but its clean and there is a hot water heater in each room so it heats up really really fast.
Its more humid here. It isn't really warmer, its just muggy. Yesterday I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt and it was pretty toasty. Today I'm going to be wearing lighter clothes. I'm really glad that I brought a lot of light clothes. They just installed AC in a bunch of the classrooms, so they aren't working yet. Maybe by the time classes start. I haven't really had a chance to take a lot of photos, I might do that this afternoon.
Patrick took me and a new econ teacher (whose name I have forgotten) out to eat dinner last night. We had sweet and sour chicken, kung pao chicken, potatoes (think hash browns that aren't crispy), and spicy green beans with evil spicy peppers. It was delicious but every time I travel my appetite crashes, so I had a little of each and mainly rice. Oh and I had some more coke. Man I miss that crack, it is so yummy. Real sugar makes all the difference. I went to bed around 6 or 7pm, and I woke up two or three times in the middle of the night. That's cause at 2am here its noon in Denver. So other than the jet lag I slept really well. The bed is very comfy and the pillows are amazing. I might look into getting dark pillow cases so that I can sleep after I have taken a shower, cause right now my pillow cases are dark and I'm worried about dying them pink. I also don't have a towel or a brush, so atm I am air drying. Its just after 9am here, so I'm going to go nuke last nights leftovers and eat them for breakfast. Then hit up an ATM.
Something sorta interesting though. The freshman have to march for 8 hours a day for the first two weeks of school. They start at 6am, and I can hear them from my room. Patrick said to think of it as saying the pledge of allegiance except bigger. They aren't doing marching like marching band marching though. Its kinda interesting. I might take pics/video of it. But I better go eat breakfast first."
Hum....I keep adding photos....or trying to, and I keep getting the message "Error, please try again". I'm not sure if this is because of the VPN (made it impossible to upload videos on youtube) or another reason. I'm going to post this, and see if I can edit it later to post photos. Cause I want to share photos of my room.
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