Day One - Arrival

I am finally here! Just got to the Wenjin Hotel a little while ago. The flight wasn't too terrible, I had a window seat so I could sleep for a couple interrupted hours here and there. There were two middle-aged men in my row - one, a Penn State grad, who said his nieces went to OU (not ohio state). The other was mildly creepy. I watched Eternal Sunshine & Bridget Jones and actually got some reading done. Nevertheless, I survived the 12 hour flight - but I'm still confused with this 12 hour time difference. Although I was amused that I didn't have to set my analog watch backwards or forwards...ha.

About 20 of us were on the direct flight to Beijing, and we all took a bus back to the hotel, all the while a Chinese student who attends the University we will be studying at was telling us about the best times to play basketball with the locals, and the best local places to go at night.

The hotel room is huge and gorgeous. There are more lights and lightswitches in odd places than I know what to do with. It took me about ten minutes to figure out that you have to use your room key to turn on any lights at all...but the natural light is stunning. I'm trying really hard not to take a nap so I can adjust to the jet-lag...

We have a tour of the surrounding area at 7pm, led by our program leader/professor. I'm praying we'll all go out to dinner afterwards. I just realized the last time I ate was on the plane...ten hours ago. I took some pictures of the room before it got polluted with my oversized (and sneakily overweight) luggage, so I'll post those once I figure out how.

I already miss New York, especially since I was only home for two days. But China is beautiful - I can't wait until we start sightseeing, because a lot of Beijing from what I have seen on the drive from the airport seems pretty modern. It reminds me of Queens.

Miss you,

Karen

7pm Onward:

The tour was pretty quick - didn't have time to stop at an ATM. We decided to go to a western-ish cafe for dinner to be comforted by familiar food. We had an impossible time comminicating with the waiters, although one girl speaks chinese, which alleviated some frustration and unintended offense! The cafe was cute - for U of M kids, it was like a mix of Rendezvous and the CrazyWisdom Tea Room; perfect. I ordered breakfast (it was 8:30AM in NY). It came with the best tea I've had in a while. There was an interesting crowd mix there - some americans, some chinese, some look-alike study abroad students like ourselves. I owe people money for dinner.

We stopped at a local grocery store on the way back to the hotel - it had the strangest, most unimaginable combination of products. If you look to the left you'll see a high-end shoe store, but then look back to the right and there are people sampling puff pasteries and selling dollar-store quality items. I stocked up on some water, and then realized I had left my credit card at the hotel counter when they gave me a hard time about having a limit and being unable to pay for the fee that will be charged to the room if anything is damaged....and they refuse to give me my passport until I find a way to resolve that. Clearly my financial/immigration situation is off to a good start.

I think tomorrow we have most of the day free to explore Beijing, after getting a tour of the Tsinghua campus - and I take back the comparison to Queens: Beijing has 20 times the population and tons of street vendors that come out at night, and it seems cleaner with a little bit of an antique feel.