Sorry it’s taken awhile to contact you, but WE MADE IT! The plane ride was long and I barely slept at all just because it was during the daytime most of the way and I was not feeling good at all toward the end, but I managed and we all got here safely and with all of our luggage. There were times where I thought I was going to have to run to the bathroom on the plane but I made it without any such incidences.
When we got here we got dropped off at our places and then headed to dinner together with everyone from both teams. Our apartment is fairly nice except for the kitchen and the bathroom…both are fine but just older. Both also wreak of the traditional Chinese smell…pollution and mostly, sewage. So that’s lovely. More than anything I just hate the smell here in China!
But today we’re going to get cell phones (hopefully), bikes, apartment furnishings, etc. And I stress hopefully because little has gone as planned so far! We walked in and out of the airport upon arrival several times as we communicated with the bus driver where he was supposed to pick us up and the location kept changing. Our electricity “ran out” halfway through the night last night when I woke up sweating because the air had turned off (electricity, internet, etc run on cards that you charge for a certain amount, and once that amount is up, it just shuts off), and so on. The nice thing about our apartment is that people have been staying here for awhile so there’s already a lot of stuff in here…a TV, dressers and shelves, some furniture, beds (even though mine is extremely hard…I’ll have to do something about that), kitchen table, some kitchen supplies, some sheets and pillows, etc. So we probably won’t have to buy a lot of stuff but can just get some things that’ll make it feel more like home. AIR FRESHNERS for starters, a rug for our living room (hardwood floors), and whatever else might make it feel more like home.
I think it’ll be nicer once we straighten it up a bit and the people who are moving to a different apartment get some of their stuff out of here. It’s just kind of cluttered right now between their stuff still being here and this being the “office” apartment where some stuff gets stored anyway.
Things are okay so far. Dinner was good last night and I actually got full but it probably won’t be like that every day. I didn’t have a lot of expectations coming into this but they haven’t really been met so far mainly because it’s just DIFFERENT than what I experienced last time. We’re smack dab in the middle of everything instead of kind of being isolated on a campus like when I was on SP so everything’s just really BUSY here it seems like. I don’t think I’ve met anyone that speaks English yet (not that we’ve had a ton of interaction with people so far) but hopefully that’s just because a majority of the students aren’t here yet and no one seems to care that we’re here unlike last time when we were the center of attention. The Paralympics will be starting soon (or just started?...) so there’s still stuff on our campus. I think that’s the reason for our late class start but I REALLY HOPE that students are coming sooner than that otherwise it’s going to be a LOONG few weeks before classes. I really need to meet some students and be reminded of why we’re here in the first place.
Well I need to go shower since I just crashed before doing that last night and it’s finally light enough to shower without the lights on, but it’ll hopefully get easier to be in contact within the next few days. Please keep in touch and let me know how you are all doing!
Blessings,
Chris
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