And we're back...

After more than a week sans internet, I've been feeling a little disconnected...and many of you have been wondering where the hell I am. Unfortunately, the internet connection here in China leaves much to be desired and I am unable to upload any photos (as of yet) but luckily I've inserted links to a few videos that Stephanie and Adrian have taken. So here we go, a first look at China...

The packing process was arduous. Trying to determine what to take for an 18 month sojourn in a far away place with no real knowledge of what to expect there was challenging. In the end, I said, "The heck with it, I'm taking an extra bag." The $85 charge was well worth it.
Although, my original flight was canceled due to snow in Chicago, I arrived in Beijing one day later with no problem. We were met by the Abroad China staff (basically our liaison on the ground) and driven to a comfortable hotel near our school. It felt very luxurious compared to my other international adventures which involved arriving in a foreign place, haphazardly navigating my way into the city only to sleep in a shady little dive. Perhaps those days are over.

The first night we randomly chose a restaurant close to our hotel called the Big Wave and it turned out to be an amazing meal...the first of many. The next day China Abroad had made arrangements for apartment viewings and by the end of the day we had secured the most beautiful apartment I've ever had. I was waffling between a lot of different options until we saw this place...Stephanie, Adrian and I snatched it up immediately. It was amazing to find an apartment on the first day. God Bless agents and the fees we pay them. Check out this video, directed by Stephanie...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQ9kohC3xT0

The rest of the week was spent making trips to Ikea on Friday and Carrefour on Saturday (which I would not recommend. Shopping on a rainy Saturday in China proved to be more than I could take...people were everywhere. It was a bit overwhelming. I vowed never to go shopping on the weekend again.) Here is the proof:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCecZXVN0rA

Here's an interesting story: On Saturday morning, after a long night of dancing (and therefore drinking) I woke up to a muffled banging. I thought, "Is that someone at our door?" I got up to check and in fact, there were a few people knocking. As I struggled with the door (we have two front doors?) Adrian got up as well. We opened the door to find three Chinese faces staring back at us, speaking loudly in Chinese. Remember we were in our pyjamas and a little hungover. Luckily, Stephanie heard the commotion and got up to assist us. We quickly learned that the older lady was our landlord and she came in. We all thought she was there to handle some last minute details and then she would move on. In fact, she had a lot more information to impart, including, but not limited to, an 8 step process for improving and maintaining our health, which brands to buy, when we should go to bed, not to use hair dryers, the list goes on. She also demonstrated her flexibility by doing a split on the floor and performing an entire Tai Chi routine...she is 70 years old. Before we knew it, she had been there for 3 hours. The next day she took us out to lunch and demonstrated how to eat a pigeon head.

By Tuesday, we were on our way to get our residence permit with our landlord. This was an interesting process that involved accompanying our landlord along with someone from the management office of our compound to the police station. Everything in China is a matter of "guanxi" or personal connections. So this trip involved going to see someone's "friend" in order to obtain residence permits without the landlord (or us) having to pay taxes. For us it was just another outing. Here is a video of the exercise machines that can be found all over the city. For us Westerners, it's a playground for adults and I love them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbeF-ESlREY

That's all I got for now. I hope to update more often and add a lot of photos. At this point, my first impressions of China are the scent of diesel and cigarettes, skyscrapers, cranes and construction alongside horse drawn vegetable carts, 15 minute taxi rides that are cheaper than one subway ride in NYC, my new fake Gucci bag, street side lamb kababs for 1 kuai (about 12 cents), more food than you can eat at a very nice sit down restaurant for no more than $10 per person, babies in split pants and women doing Tai Chi in the courtyard downstairs.