Back by popular demand!

Due to ever-growing popularity and at the request of my loyal reader, you know who you are, the blogging will recommence! Be careful what you ask for...

I am in China. I feel like I could end there with no explanation needed, but the entertainment is, admittedly, in the details.

After much waiting for papers and visas and last minute plane tickets, confiscation of my beloved deodorant and my first ever 13 hour plane ride, I arrived in Beijing Saturday evening safely, if not quite sound. We waited in line for what seemed like hours to have our passport stamped and then breezed through the baggage and customs areas (Chinese people are apparently only efficient when they want to be). Thankfully, there was a school representative waiting for us outside the door and we were whisked into a car and out of there.

I was glad to be in the car for about 30 seconds, while I was still figuring out that we were on the wrong side of the road and oncoming traffic really was moving that quickly. I rapidly came to terms with the possibility of dying (or maybe it was just the shock that kept me from jumping out) as we dashed around mobs of bikers and rickshaws, all the while just missing the other speeding vehicles. There was a very near miss with a bus but in an attempt to erase it from my memory as quickly as possible, I am not going to go into detail.

Luckily for me, my jetlag was starting to set in and I fell asleep for the last half of the ride. Dan woke me up when we arrived at the creepy looking compound that we will call home for the next 9 months.

We were taken directly to our "apartment" on the sixth floor (no elevator) of building 8. If it sounds luxurious now, just wait! We are told that this is temporary, for about a week, but it's China, I have my doubts. Our little one room abode is cosy, but was a tad bit dirty (I'm being nice) and a little smaller than we expected. The fact that there were only two out of six lightbulbs in our fixture was only a mild disappointment compared with the lack of flushing power in our toilet (we worked it out using a complex mathematical equation, and we can each take a dump every alternating third day--if I sound cranky, now you know why).

After being horizontal for about 30 seconds I decided the place was livable and fell into a deep sleep (at 8 p.m.) only to be woken up four hours later with about a liter less blood (Chinese mosquitos are enormous)! So Dan and I spent a few hours hunting down and killing all buzzing and flying creatures. Actually, he did all the work, but I stayed up and cheered him on. Needless to say, I've seen way creepier bugs since then, and all of the bugs here seem to be about 5 times the size of the American version (when there is one).

Sunday morning we had our first Chinese breakfast. The steamed bread with bean paste was actually quite tasty and filling, the warm milk was warm and milky, the steamed green beans were an unusual breakfast choice but certainly do-able, the flavorless barley water was a little weird and the crunchy, not so sour sourkrout was close to appalling. Overall, it wasn't bad.

After breakfast, we took a trip into town and things got interesting. There are no signs for the bus stops here. You just have to know where they are or be able to speak enough Chinese to ask. We were up the creek. We went into town with a Chinese girl, which made it easier, and she was kind enough to take us to Marymart or Merrymart (I can't remember which now) to do some shopping. I have never seen so much color before in my life! Between the color and the music on the street and the color and music oozing out of all the stores it was a little bit like Big Trouble in Little China meets Toys 'R Us gone long (if you don't get the joke it's your loss).

Shopping in itself was entertaining, as it always is when there are so many new items and you can't read the labels. I got so excited when I saw a jug that said "Pure Milk" that I just had to buy it! But, aside from the joys of being totally confused, there were the little things, like little children staring, pointing and laughing at us. Now, granted, Dan looks a little like Jesus at the moment, but they don't know who Jesus is! Even more entertaining were the adults who couldn't take their eyes off of us, one of which came pretty close to falling off her bike and another held up traffic with his pick-up bike in order to get one last look.

Other entertainment to be found in town included a woman flipping bowls onto her head, a machine that smacked you on the head to tell you how tall you are and your fortune for the day, and dodging traffic in the street, even if the little walking man was green. Dan cursed at a car that almost ran him over and the man behind me started laughing. I think his exact thoughts were "Stupid foreigner thinks he has right to live... hahaha!"

It took us about 20 minutes to find the bus stop for the way back (our tourguide had left us), but eventually we got on. Thanks to our western looks, I barely had to pronounce the first syllable of the town we needed to get to before the ticket woman shouted it at me and took our money. For ten cramped minutes I stood next to a little girl who may have had SARS or TB or Avian Flu, so I practically leaped out of the bus before it stopped, and I'm pretty sure the busdriver would have let me.

Today, there was sun! The dust cleared for a few hours this afternoon and I felt the first (very faint) rays of sun since I got to Beijing. I was given my schedule and met my assistant teachers, told that I would not be given supplies and basically prepared to suffer. Tomorrow I start bright and early. Dan, on the other hand has 5 class periods a week, no joke, and only teaches Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. There's no need to mention that he's earning one and a half times my salary for doing a quarter of the work. Life is so unfair!