Monday, August 30, 2010

Made it!

Ni hao!

Well I have safely arrived here in Beibei without a scratch! The flight from LA to Beijing was long but I managed to sleep for 8 of the 12 hour trip so that helped. Interesting thing about flying with Chinese, if you are in an aisle seat, you are not expected to get up to allow the inner seat passengers to get by. As an window/middle seat passenger you should not expect anyone to move or get up for you. So I woke up a few times during the flight to find a Chinese man almost sitting on top of me trying to get to the aisle. Hello to you too sir.
I planned my trip so that I would have a 10 hour layover in Beijing. Why do such a thing you might ask? FREE TRIP TO BEIJING! My checked bags got to lounge at the airport while I heaved my carryons throughout the Beijing subway system to pop up right in front of the Forbidden city. Quite the site for my first few minutes in China. I explored the area for a while, but jet lag, thirst, and hunger eventually pushed me back towards the airport.
I saw a lot of interesting things during this "free trip," ;) Here's a list of some of the good ones:
- baby in butt-less chaps (yes, full chinese moon)
- some sort of chicken or rodent in a bag on the subway (still alive), presumably dinner for the night. I question what kind of animal it was because I only heard it squealing when it's carrier was beating the bag.
- women's fashion. this could go on forever but they all wear heels, or wedges. And if that can't be done there's at least rhinestones or sparkles on the shoes. Also shirts that say things like Sunlight, Balmy, Why not? and Do you make love?
- murses. male purses.
- TEA! Everyone has a nalgene full of it.
- No understanding of lines. You gotta push your way to the front, space between you and the person in front of you means someone else can fit in there.
- And of course my blonde hair and round light eyes attracted a few photographs. All smiles here :)

And now I'm settling into my apartment here in Beibei, which I hope to post some pictures of shortly. More orientation and touring tomorrow and wednesday and hopefully classes will begin sometime next week. Until next time!

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the big day! As predicted the packing has not begun but I have completed my stuff-your-face-with-American-food-before-you-won't-get-it-for-a-year task. Last Sunday my sister and I were admittedly distracted during church and made a mad lib of my travels. In its own way it's kind of a prayer for a safe trip over there, so here it is!

Brianne's trip to China
            Arriving at the airport, Brianne checked her 7 ducks at the ticketing counter. The airline gave her a friendship bracelet to travel with and wished her a fuzzy flight. While galloping on to the plane Brianne found a wooden penny and knew it was good luck. Her seat partner was a strapless German travelling to China to find rare and exotic toes. The flight was very shiny but Brianne still managed to fall asleep and dream about feeding pineapples! She safely awoke in China and lived usually ever after!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Final Countdown

It has begun. One week from today I will be over the Pacific on my way to China. That means 6 days and some odd hours is probably when I'll start packing. It'll get done. I'm filled with quite a concotion of emotions as the days creep by and my bookmark moves further and further in my Chinese travel book. I've been spending most of my pre-departure days filling up on food and activites that will be deeply missed abroad such as concert-going, zebra cake-eating, mario kart wii-playing, cheese-consuming, and of course friend and family-loving. I'm too excited about living and working in China and thinking about all the new places I'll see, people I'll meet and food to try, to think about all I'll miss back home! I'm making a new home! But just for good measure... I'm off to find some gouda.