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Published: August 28th 2005
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From my notebook that I had on the planes with me:
So, I had promised that I would write an entry before I left for China but as it turned out I didn't have time - even for sleep. A few of my friends and I stayed out late on Thursday night as I hadn'ts een some of them in quite a long time. I then spent the rest of the night packing. I hope I brought a lot of things I need, I already know I left behind my Chinese notes (for whatever stupid reason) but hopefully what I do have will help me. My flight from Raleigh/Durham to New York went well but then my flight from New York to Beijing got delayed an hour. Fortunately I met a nice young man in the airport as well as a couple others who were teaching English in various places in China. I really enjoyed talking to them. I finally realized what I was going to do in the New York airport - it finally hit me that I was going to China. Now that I'm almost to Beijing on the plane I'm realizing just how little Chinese I
actually know. I've never been to a country alone before where I know this little of the native language before going. Granted I went to India with about the same amount of Hindi but I was going with people - including a native Hindi speaker. I feel so frustrated - part of me wants to scream/cry and the other part just wants to give up and do what many others here do - rely on the bilingual. But I know I'lll never let myself do that. In the meantime we're supposed to arrive at 7:20pm and my flight to Dalian is at 8:10pm. I've already told the flight attendant (in my broken Chinese but mainly his borken English). Now it's time to eat my second meal and wait to see what happens. I already have an offer of a hotel in case I get stuck in Beijing. Unfortunately I got stuck sitting next to a very atypical New Yorker - keeps to himself when he can help it.
I just had a horrendous time with wonderful luck (I know, sounds strange). I dreamt that I had gotten up and calmly gotten my luggage and made it to my next flight. Then I woke up to realize the truth - that the plane was landing, I hadn't gotten my stuff and my Chinese would soon make it impossible for me to calmly get to my next flight. I quickly rushed through customs and then ran around likek a chicken with my head cut off while my luggage took it's time getting to the claim. By that time it was 7:55pm, I was flipping out and about to break down in tears but I went upstairs to try and get another flight to Dalian. Fortunately it had also been delayed till 9:20 and also (surprisingly enough and fortunate) there were some ... hawkers looking for any way to get money (who I normally avoid but decided to let them help me this time) who ran me and my luggage to the next terminal and asked me for money as they showed me how to check-in to security. Normally this would be a bad thing but they saved me quite a lot of time and stress so I paid them half their asking price and calmly went through security to my flight which was still waiting for me. Success at last. Now I only hope people are waiting for me at the end. I'm slowly beginning to realize the "subtle" way people here stare at foreigners. If I sit and do nothing they won't look at me unless I'm looking at them. It's when I'm moving around that they really look. Fortunately Beijing is bilingual enought that everything in the domestic airport is still in English. My only other problem is I haven't exchanged even a dollar yet.
Today's Sunday, the day before training starts. I still have yet to exchange even a single dollar but I have one of the nicest roommates in the world. She is of Chinese origin but born in Canada. She's been here for a little while and has been taking a little bit more Chinese than I have. When I got in last night she had already made some peanut butter sandwiches for me to munch on before bed. Fortunately I was so exhausted that I doubt I will get jet lag (I passed out right at midnight and got up around 7am). The two of us stayed up and talked for a little while. The apartment's pretty nice compared to some other places I've stayed in. There are no huge bugs like Costa Rica and there are windows with actual glass to keep the dirt/dust and rain out (unlike India). It's on the 10th floor of a nice building (with an elevator up to the floor but five main steps up to the elevator - strangely enough). The suite itself has two fairly nice large bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and living room complete with couch, tv and a bunch of other things. Today (Sunday) I took some pictures of the apartment which I will post soon.
Anyways, my roommate (Cat) showed me where the school building is and we watched a short class this morning (on sports - mainly a class for people sitting in to see how the school teaches). Then she took me to Wal-Mart (yes, unfortunately there is a HUGE wal-mart here) and McDonalds to look for an ATM (which we didn't find) and then walked me down to a market about 20 minutes away where she helped me get a bunch of food for the apartment. As for pollution here it's not much better than ... New York City but it's still aparently pretty clean compared to many other Chinese cities. The market is a very open place with a lot of different people selling different things and you just walk around and get whatever you want in small little bags. Then we went back to the apartment for lunch (which consisted of a peanut butter sandwich, hard boiled eggs, some sweets that she had, "yogurt" - more liquid than anything else). The toilet is making a horrible stench (so we just keep the door closed) but besides that the apartment is awesome (keep your fingers crossed for me). After lunch we cleaned up (and Cat packed up) I am very upset with my Chinese but I can't be too hard on myself. Fortunately the school is going to provide us with some Chinese classes (although I just learned that we're only going to take one class of Chinese a week after the four days of intense beginner Chinese that we're going to take this week). I'll ask the teacher tomorrow and buy a dictionary at some point. I'm sure living pretty much by myself here will make things go a lot faster. Apparently we're going to sign-in with the Embassy tomorrow to make sure we're here legally as well as start to learn how they want us to teach here, and I'll be able to get some money (although how much I'm not really sure) and take a beginners Chinese course (which unfortunately will probably be of what I already know and not new things that I very much need to know). I suppose that's all for now. I'm debating whether I should start a bank account here for my money that I'll get while teaching here. I'm sure it will be easier to have a bank nearby than to have a bank that's apparently 50 minutes (by taxi) from where I'm staying (which is the one that we have right now where I can get money from my ATM card). It's kind of strange that India had my ATM all over the place (even in the backwards traditional towns) and in a city that's so huge like Dalian and extremely modern compared to Banaras I can't find my ATM anywhere even close to nearby. I guess I'll get a bunch of money out and put it into another account closer.
I wanted to make this list here (and as I'm randomly waiting for Cat to return I have time to waste). This is a list of things that people should definitely bring while traveling and that I've never regretted having: swiss army knife, traveling backpack (because traveling with rolling luggage is almost impossible in some places), towel, sarong (for the ladies it can act as a towel/dress/skirt/even a top and in general it can decorate any surface), and a Nalgene bottle (good as a cup and a traveling bottle for both hot and cold liquids). I'll make this list longer as I think of things.
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Char
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You made it!
Congratulations... you made it. Sounds pretty overwhelming, but also exciting. Will watch for the photos. I can't believe you're in China, and I am in Tryon, NC xoxox C