I bin in Harbin

Well here it is, an overview of my first two and a half weeks in China. I wanted to preface my post with a brief introduction to China, but I soon realized that that was impossible. There is no way to introduce China. From the constant honking to the old men playing majiang on the street to the Chinese themselves, there is no way to encompass all of the idiosyncracies and particulars that make China China.

I arrived in Beijing after a miserable 13 hour flight. The only reason it was miserable was due to the fact that it was 13 hours. There is no way for it to be anything more than miserable. After watching the little model of the plane make its way past the north pole, and over Siberia into China, I knew that the journey I was undertaking was not for the faint of heart. This feeling was reinforced after someone mentioned that the Chinese would be using laser temperature gauges to route out those with H1N1. Not a bad welcome! We finally disembarked, and sure enough, we were all funneled through a narrow corridor with laser sensors pointed ominously at us and a vaguely disconcerting beeping going on as we passed through the checkpoint. After getting through customs and visa approval with little problem, we met up and headed to our hotel in Beijing. At this point my body felt like it was 3 am EST and I hadn't slept since the previous night. Not a bad start, really. At least I wasn't quarantined.

Driving to the hotel in Beijing was quite the introduction to China. The traffic was insane and there didn't seem to be any real laws governing it. We arrived at the hotel, and after a brief resting period we went to a restaurant we had seen around the corner. One of the students was a Fulbright Scholar who had lived in Beijing for a year and helped us order. Restaurants in Beijing are different than Chinese classrooms at college and it was kind of like jumping into the deep end of a cold pool when you only know how to swim from watching the Olympics.
After the delicious dinner, and a big bottle of Chinese beer, I went back to the hotel and promptly fell asleep at 9.

Only to wake up at 4:30 the next morning.

Hello everyone! I'm an hour away from starting my last day of class of the first week of class. This last week has been absolutely jam packed with everything associated with starting college for the first time, only now in Chinese.

I just wanted to write this for posterity, I'll have a nice big update around 7 or 8 am EST, something to look forward to in the morning.

As some of you know, the program here has a language pledge. We pledge to only speak Chinese (outside of a minimum of conversation with family/friends). So last night I had a dream where I was speaking Chinese, and a teacher was trying to tell us something that another student didn't understand. In my dream I got really annoyed and told the other student the answer in English. I then proceeded to get mad at myself, in my dream, for speaking English. And it's only been 4 days. Other than that I'm great! I have some pictures and a few stories as well.

Well I made it! I'm in Harbin, China. All it took was a 13 hour plane ride and an 11 hour train ride. Not too bad. Harbin seems like a really interesting city, definitely a lot less polished than most other cities I've been to. Beijing was also an experience for the few hours I was there. I really only got to experience the food and a little bit of culture via Tiananmen Square. Not enough time for the Temple of Heaven unfortunately, but there will be other times.

One of the great aspects of China is the cost of things. We went out to lunch the other day and each person paid about 2 dollars for their meal. Not too bad. Next update will include interesting things I promise!