I made it!
Wow! I made it! I can hardly believe it!
It looks like I might just survive this place.
The flight was 11 hours and twenty minutes. After some hectic last-minute re-packing at the airport (where we found out three bags is cheaper than having two over-weight bags, which is what I had, so Pierre and my mother went to buy a third suitcase and we took some things out of the other two and put them in the third one), and some tearful good-byes, I arrived on time for boarding. I bought a bottle of water and souvenir RCMP and killer whale key chains at an airport store.
On the plane I was so excited. I had an aisle seat and nobody sat next to me!! So I moved to the window seat for take off. But soon after take off a woman came to sit beside me. Much later she changed seats with another guy and we talked. He was a professor of agriculture in a north-eastern Chinese university, specialising in fertilizer. Enthralling. But he was really nice and he helped me pick up my three very heavy suitcases when we were at the Beijing airport.
China looks...brown from above. From that far up, houses look the same as anywhere else. The roads in the countryside are very skinny - yellow pieces of string going in all directions and rarely straight. It's also very flat until you start getting near Beijing, when it gets hilly (but hilly sounds like these nice, comfortable round things appear, when really, they're hard, jagged things with sharp edges). Many buildings have bright blue and red rooftops. And I noticed a lot of large three-walled compounds with nice-looking courtyards in the middle.
I'm in a smoky internet cafe. It's getting hard to breathe. Yuck.
Entering the country was a lot easier than I expected it would be. Didn't have to line-up for long anywhere. No questions were asked. Pretty simple. And my seat-mate helped me with my luggage, so really, it was a piece of cake! Then I went into the entrance area where a huge crowd of people were waiting and they all had signs with names...on top of that, I had the choice whether to go left or right and the crowd continued for a long time in both directions. How was I to know which way to go? I chose right and scanned all the signs I could. What if I missed my name? Then I found her...a charming young Chinese woman called May was holding up my name "Carone Grover" in ink, with "li" in pencil written between the "o" and the "n." She was all smiles and really helpful. She took me to the old, small car that was parked in the parking lot. There was a driver who didn't speak any English. I talked with May in English all the way to the university, which actually isn't that far because it's in the outskirts of the city.
I'm going to be staying temporarily in the foreign students' building, because the foreign teacher's building is under renovations until the end of the September. Once the renovations are done, though, it sounds like it'll be pretty nice...with a computer and internet access in my room and even a fridge in the kitchen! Right now I have a room with two beds and a private bathroom and a kitchen which I'm too afraid to use because it's a gas stove top (that's all) and I don't want to die young. The instructions for how to use the stove are, by the way, in Chinese.
Most of the students on campus speak English, which is nice. May is very helpful. In less than 24 hours since my arrival I opened up a bank account at the Bank of Agriculture and I've bought some things with my new debit card at a local supermarket which has everything. I didn't have to worry so much! I brought a lot of things I could've bought here, but that I didn't know they had here!
There's even a swimming pool on campus, which I might use today. I bought goggles, but I also need to wear a swimming cap (I'll be so stylish!). Or else I'll walk around and explore my new surroundings.
I do have air conditioning in my room, which is super nice. And I also have a TV so I watch the English channel 5. I realise that the Gaza strip has been successfully and somewhat peacefully emptied of Israelis. And that the Palestinians celebrated in the streets and thank Hammas for everything. Yikes.
I don't know how much time I have left, so I better post this thing while I can. Hope you're all well. I'd love to hear from you! An hour on the computer is 3 yuan so I think I'll be coming here regularly.
Take care and have fun!
It looks like I might just survive this place.
The flight was 11 hours and twenty minutes. After some hectic last-minute re-packing at the airport (where we found out three bags is cheaper than having two over-weight bags, which is what I had, so Pierre and my mother went to buy a third suitcase and we took some things out of the other two and put them in the third one), and some tearful good-byes, I arrived on time for boarding. I bought a bottle of water and souvenir RCMP and killer whale key chains at an airport store.
On the plane I was so excited. I had an aisle seat and nobody sat next to me!! So I moved to the window seat for take off. But soon after take off a woman came to sit beside me. Much later she changed seats with another guy and we talked. He was a professor of agriculture in a north-eastern Chinese university, specialising in fertilizer. Enthralling. But he was really nice and he helped me pick up my three very heavy suitcases when we were at the Beijing airport.
China looks...brown from above. From that far up, houses look the same as anywhere else. The roads in the countryside are very skinny - yellow pieces of string going in all directions and rarely straight. It's also very flat until you start getting near Beijing, when it gets hilly (but hilly sounds like these nice, comfortable round things appear, when really, they're hard, jagged things with sharp edges). Many buildings have bright blue and red rooftops. And I noticed a lot of large three-walled compounds with nice-looking courtyards in the middle.
I'm in a smoky internet cafe. It's getting hard to breathe. Yuck.
Entering the country was a lot easier than I expected it would be. Didn't have to line-up for long anywhere. No questions were asked. Pretty simple. And my seat-mate helped me with my luggage, so really, it was a piece of cake! Then I went into the entrance area where a huge crowd of people were waiting and they all had signs with names...on top of that, I had the choice whether to go left or right and the crowd continued for a long time in both directions. How was I to know which way to go? I chose right and scanned all the signs I could. What if I missed my name? Then I found her...a charming young Chinese woman called May was holding up my name "Carone Grover" in ink, with "li" in pencil written between the "o" and the "n." She was all smiles and really helpful. She took me to the old, small car that was parked in the parking lot. There was a driver who didn't speak any English. I talked with May in English all the way to the university, which actually isn't that far because it's in the outskirts of the city.
I'm going to be staying temporarily in the foreign students' building, because the foreign teacher's building is under renovations until the end of the September. Once the renovations are done, though, it sounds like it'll be pretty nice...with a computer and internet access in my room and even a fridge in the kitchen! Right now I have a room with two beds and a private bathroom and a kitchen which I'm too afraid to use because it's a gas stove top (that's all) and I don't want to die young. The instructions for how to use the stove are, by the way, in Chinese.
Most of the students on campus speak English, which is nice. May is very helpful. In less than 24 hours since my arrival I opened up a bank account at the Bank of Agriculture and I've bought some things with my new debit card at a local supermarket which has everything. I didn't have to worry so much! I brought a lot of things I could've bought here, but that I didn't know they had here!
There's even a swimming pool on campus, which I might use today. I bought goggles, but I also need to wear a swimming cap (I'll be so stylish!). Or else I'll walk around and explore my new surroundings.
I do have air conditioning in my room, which is super nice. And I also have a TV so I watch the English channel 5. I realise that the Gaza strip has been successfully and somewhat peacefully emptied of Israelis. And that the Palestinians celebrated in the streets and thank Hammas for everything. Yikes.
I don't know how much time I have left, so I better post this thing while I can. Hope you're all well. I'd love to hear from you! An hour on the computer is 3 yuan so I think I'll be coming here regularly.
Take care and have fun!
posted by Caro at 4:04 PM
3 Comments:
Josh says 3 yuan is too expensive. He also says you're not getting your apartment until April. Have you found his friend yet?
so do you have a toilet or not? -cheryl
btw even in hk, most stoves are gas. it won't kill you. actually we chinese ppl typically live to be older than westerners, remember?
Post a Comment
<< Home