I was very excited to meet at the airport the morning of departure.\u00a0 I had to get there early but was extra excited when I got to see the other group of teachers before they got on the first leg of their journey to Shanghai.\u00a0 Checking in was easy and then we waited.\u00a0 The flight to Chicago was quick; up and then right back down!\u00a0 The next one was not to be that easy.\u00a0 Almost immediately after arriving in Chicago, we were in line to have our visas checked and then boarded the next flight.\u00a0 Beijing, here we come!\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thirteen plus hours in an airplane is not an easy task.\u00a0 I was in the very last row of the plane\u00a0 (minus the row for the flight attendants).\u00a0 We passed the time with exciting games of Mad Gab, Pass the Pigs, and Hearts.\u00a0 Other time was spent learning a Chinese song from my new friend Kathy (or her Chinese name Xiang Yang).\u00a0 She spoke English very well and offered to teach me Chinese during my stay in Beijing.\u00a0 I may take her up on this offer.\u00a0 Her mother is a professor at Tsinghua University very near where my apartment is located and also my school.\u00a0 I plan to call them when I am more settled here.<\/p>\n
Highlights of the flight: Flying directly over the North Pole (and the sky being clear so that we could see sheets of ice), meeting Xiang Yang and her mother, and not having to use the airplane bathroom, which I\u2019m sure is unhealthy but has to be some kind of record.\u00a0 I definitely paid for it when I had to go through all of the security in Beijing Capital Airport before visiting the bathroom.\u00a0 Another highlight of the flight was that is was light for the entire time.\u00a0 This was a little strange but I imagine that many of my new experiences will also be very strange so I think I\u2019ll just go with it.<\/p>\n
We met our Chinese friend in the airport who was also arriving to Beijing from Canada that day and we were on our way.\u00a0 On the ride to our apartment we passed the Bird\u2019s Nest, the Water Cube, and also the REALLY tall hotels that the Olympic athletes stayed in last summer.\u00a0 I found myself just staring at this as we drove past because I couldn\u2019t believe that I was in Beijing and seeing these things for my own eyes.\u00a0 (\u201cSeeing\u201d is really a relative term because the smog was so bad when we arrived it was more like seeing a silhouette of these things.)<\/p>\n
After lugging our stuff to our apartment, we went out for supper with the other FOC teachers.\u00a0 This was quite an enjoyable time as we tried a variety of dishes (including the popular and delicious Peking Duck).\u00a0 The total bill was less than $40 for ten people!\u00a0 There was a ton of food left over and we warmed it up for lunch the next day.\u00a0 I still have many questions about everything and hope to have them answered by this time next week.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The rest of the night was also incredibly interesting and entertaining\u2014to someone who is jet-lagged.\u00a0 Had I not been so tired and giggly, I think I might have been a tad more frustrated.\u00a0 When we got the apartment we found that the electricity had run out.\u00a0 (You buy electricity on a card and insert it into the wall for your lights to work. Ours was not working.)\u00a0 Thankfully I had thought to bring a flashlight (who knows why?) with me to China.\u00a0 This was a crucial part of the rest of the night and also the extremely cold, dark shower in the morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before we went to bed that night we thought we would venture down to the massage parlor\/hair salon.\u00a0 The four of us decided that we needed massages.\u00a0 This was also quite an adventure.\u00a0 I have never had a massage in the states so I was definitely excited about it in China.\u00a0 We had our own room equipped with four quite comfortable couch\/bed things, and our own Chinese masseuse.\u00a0 The most exciting part, however, was that the hour long massage was 38 kuai!!! (This is only about five and a half dollars.)\u00a0 I will most likely visit this place again for a foot massage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All in all\u2014a tiring, but excellent day!<\/p>\n
Highlights of the day:\u00a0 MASSAGE, realizing that I am in China, and fellowship with FOC teachers. I am eternally grateful for their help and patience with the newbies!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was very excited to meet at the airport the morning of departure.\u00a0 I had to get there early but was extra excited when I got to see the other group of teachers before they got on the first leg of their journey to Shanghai.\u00a0 Checking in was easy and then we waited.\u00a0 The flight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43\/revisions\/48"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amber.schlomer.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}