Hello again everyone! I am not quite sure that I am actually posting because for some reason it will not let me view my blog. So I'm just trusting so. Write now I am using the Internet in my room at my host family's house. It is extremely slow! I'm not sure what kind of Internet it is, but definitely not as fast as our cable. But I'm so glad to have it!!
So run down on my trip here. We left Atlanta at 7PM on Sunday and go to Los Angeles around midnight. There we had to recheck in to our AirChina flight to Beijing. But first we had to find the terminal! Luckily we had a 5 hour layover. We ended up leaving the airport and waiting on a bus for over 30 minutes. Los Angeles driver's are about equivelent to NY. It was interesting. So after finally gettting on a bus, we made it to the Air China check in place. We checked in and were told that there was no where to get food in this terminal and we had to walk to another. So we did, got some McDonald's and walked back. (very fun when carrying 2 heavy bags). We breezed through security. LAX is pretty lax, I didn't have to take out my computer or my liquids bag. We walked through down to our gate to discover an open Burger King...oh well. So at the gate we waited for about an hour and then boarded our big 747 to Beijing. On this plane I was lucky enough to sit in the middle 4 seats on the aisle seat and not have anyone sit next to me. So I could spread out a bit. I fell asleep before we took off, woke up, then fell asleep again to find some more dinner. Ate that and then fell asleep off and on for about 6 hours. So this made the 12-hour flight not so bad.
Once arriving in Beijing we had quite the events. We had 2 hours to go through customs. get out bags, turn our bags back in, go through security and find out gate once again. We arrived in the brand new Beijing airport terminal. It was HUGE and very fancy! All for the olympics this summer. So we went through customs easily, got on a train and found our luggage. Turned it back in and then hit security once again. Here we discovered they were a bit more intense then Atlanta or LAX. She got out my luquids and scanned my passport a bunch of times, and went through each of them, smelling them. Then she wouldnt let you have more than one shampoo or toothpaste so I had to give it to someone else. It was crazy. So we got a bit delayed there and finally made it to our gate to board the plane immediatly. On this two hour flight I had my own row and got a good hour nap in.
Now we were in Chengdu! Once in Chengdu we had our first bathroom experience. Squatty potties!! Need I say more? We exchanged our money and met David our guide for the week, and some other people from the school. We loaded up our bus and went directly to the the University and the lab school. At the lab school, they fed us lunch. Our first real chinese meal. Let's say...I think I'm going to live off rice for the next month. But I'm trying!! We then walked around the school a bit and had a meeting with our host families. After the meeting they sent us home with our family and that was about it for the day. I watched some TV ate dinner, took a shower (yay!) and went to bed at about 7PM. My host family is a lady whose name I can't remember, it was a hard Chinese name, and her two kids. A 14-year old girl name Estaphanie? I think and a 10-year old boy whose name I can't remember either. The mother's English is ok. We have some difficulty deciding what eachother is saying. We got out the dictionary a lot and point. The girls was pretty good. She is studying it in school and really enjoys learning more English. The boy doesn't know too much I don't think. The apartment is on the 3rd floor. It is really quite big! On the bottom level is the living room, kitchen and dining room. Up some stairs is the bathroom, and both the kid's bedrooms. Up some more stairs is the Mom's bedroom and all the way up is my bedroom. I have a cute little balcony too!
Well today we will be heading to the school around 7AM for our welcoming ceremony. And then I think we will just observe teaching for the rest of the day. I will be in elementary the first two weeks and then the middle school for the second two weeks.
Well love to all! Everything is going great here. I am off to begin my day!!!
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