Wow, it is hard to believe that I am actually in Beijig now! It seemed like this trip was a fairy tale for almost 10 months, and now it is here! The journey to Beijing was quite long. From getting on the Shuttle bus in Highland, IN to arriving at my dorm it was about 31 hours! That was mainly because of my layover in Shanghai, which ended up being 9 hours because the plane was late. My first experience of China was in Shanghai at the airport, it was about 95 degrees with a million percent humidity! That airport was kinda air conditioned but not all the way, it wasn't all that fun, we were so tired. We arrived in Beijing at 1 am on Monday morning, so basically late Sunday night. The three girls I was with and I went out to find a taxi, a taxi driver called us over and took us in his van and it was probably one of the most terriflying experiences of my life. He didn't speak a word of English, but we had a sheet telling him where to go in Chinese. He took us down so very dark, scary allie ways and small streets, that was the scary part. Some of those places were straight up out of the movies, but our taxi driver was a trust worthy person (as I have heard most Beijingers are) and he got us to where we needed to be, the Communication University of China (CUC) in East Beijing.
Our room is not too unlike an American dorm room. It has two bed, two desks, a TV (with one American channel), basically the normal stuff. It does have one amazing thing, AIR CONDITIONING! That is one thing I was not expecting (I have this thing where I should exspect things to be totally diffrent and kinda not great, so then if they aren't I can be happy). So I am very thankful to have AC. We also have our own bathrooms (with Western toliets)... and the shower is quite... interesting. Over all the room is fine, it is just, shall we say, "modest."
CUC has a track and soccer field next to our building, so we saw a lot of people there in the morning running, I assume I will put it to good use sometime. Today some of us walked around campus and even went outside the gate to find some breakfest. Later we had lunch at this restraunt and the food was SO GOOD! We had chicken, beef, veggies and rice, so good! Not to mention that it only cost 4 USD! PLUS it is connected to out building, the International Center, so I am sure I will be back for seconds... plus some!
Later in the day the 10 of us from Purdue who are here decided that we wanted to explore. So we hopped on a train and went over to Tian' Amnen Square. The subway system here in Beijing is fast, efficient and cheap! It cost like 30 American cents! We just scoped out Tian' Amnen Square, and took pics in front of the Forbidden City cause we will visting in later in the week, so we just kinda got a feel for it. Then we did a little shopping, you know it's funny when you go abroad and use a diffrent currency, cause it feels like you aren't really spending any money at all, then after you convert it and are like, "wow... oops." I actually did alright though, cause here in China you can bargain on prices, so I practiced that but I feel like I didn't do well enough (I got some cool stuff though).
There are twon other universities staying here at CUC, Queensland Tech, from Australia and Emerson College, which is in Boston, the aussies arrive in a couple of hours and Emerson should be here tomorrow or the next day.
I am hoping to find a website where I can post all my pics, there are some on facebook but I have like 250 already (oops again). The first 18 hours or so here have been good! China has made a good first impression, I am sure that the thousands of people headed here for the Olympic Games will feel the same! More to come tomorrow!
Rereading this I noticed that it doesn't flow all that well, that is just me being tired, haha.
-Jason
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