The place is jumping!

10:33pm Friday night:
Trying to sleep right now without a fan is like trying to sleep in a night club... there is music blasting in the room next door of remixes of awesome songs which I would appreciate under normal circumstances, but not now. I can hear the music so clear like I'm in that room. This is almost worse than dead silence. Also there are people yelling outside my door, same as every night. This is nuts. I need that fan stat! Where are the CAs to enforce the quiet hours when you need them?!??!

*Written last night while laying in my bed dying. Surprisingly I fell asleep.

Tallest building in Beijing!

Hello everyone! So I have been rather busy these days, and actually I'm kind of tired now but I want to update this and tell you what I've been up to, since this weekend is going to be super busy and full of adventures! So later on Wednesday, Maeve came to my room and we decided to go try to find some food. Maeve said we should bring Robby since he has good Chinese but I thought we would be fine. We went over to the outlet place because we wanted McDonald's. So we got there and it was really crowded in there and I got nervous about ordering the food, so then we walked out!!! haha the language barrier is so bad, I always want to order food but I don't have enough vocabulary for that, so I have decided to learn some vocab that will help me with this! Well sometimes you can point to pictures but it's not the best option. Anyway, so we were still hungry. We were walking back to the dorm and we called Robby. He said he would come help us, so we met him and he took us to the other McDonald's. I had my usual, chicken nuggets and fries, and it was pretty much the same as in the US. The difference is that we don't have to throw our trash away, someone else does that! haha.

So after eating Robby said he wanted to show us the tallest building in Beijing since Maeve was going to leave in the morning. So we took the bus to Jinsong metro station and took the metro like 3 stops. Then we walked for a long time. We got to see an indoor ice skating rink which I hope to go and try sometime. Then we finally got there, and that was so tall!!! We took some photos and Robby said, "now we go inside". We thought he was kidding but he wasn't. Within 2 minutes we were in the elevator shooting up to floor 80!!!!!! And that elevator was FASSTTTTTT it zoomed up there in less than one minute man!!! My ears popped and I could not hear anything. By the way, I used to be deathly afraid of elevators but I decided to overcome the fear because I knew I would face the elevator in Beijing at some point, turns out I was VERY RIGHT about that! We got out and up there was like a fancy restaurant and I really don't think we were supposed to just wander up there but we did. I took some photos but they didn't come out very good. I will post them in the next photo post.

So then after we took the Subway and bus and walked back to the dorms and I called it a night. Thursday was also a long day. Well, I woke up at 6am because I had to go to some medical exam where they were going to take my blood. I am not fond of this so I was worried about it all night and not looking forward to it. I got up and dressed and ready and at 7am I was down on the bus waiting to go to the hospital. Then the guy was checking the passport and visa and he said if you have an F visa you don't have to go. That's what I have, so I ended up waking up for nothing!!! But I guess it was okay because I went back to my room and Skyped Huy. :)) Then later I was getting hungry so I told Michelle because we were chatting online and she sent her friend to come take me to get something to eat. Her friend is Stephanie and she is also American, and has been here on semester already. Stephanie said she had been trying to find me to meet me but the front desk kept telling her different room numbers (gee I wonder why..). So she was SUPER NICE and I was really happy to meet her. We went out to this noodle place called 一家面馆, and it was really kind of nice in there. I enjoyed my noodles with beef and broth, mmmm. Then we went back to the dorm because I needed to go to the campus tour. That was fun because I got to actually learn about my surroundings officially. After the tour I went back to my room for a while and relaxed until I was supposed to head to Jinsong station to meet up with my friend Tracy. I met Tracy on interpals.net and so it is the first time meeting. I was kind of nervous about it, and I only saw one photo of her so I was hoping I would find her. It was my first time to take the bus alone to get there, and only my second time at Jinsong. So I was waiting for her to come out, and then I saw this beautiful girl looking at me kind of excited, and I knew it was her! :)) I was so happy. We met and then she asked me where I want to go and we checked the map. I let her choose and so we got on the subway and went to a place called ... well I don't remember what it was called, I can ask Tracy and get back to you. Anyway, it was in the center of the city, and there were a lot of old buildings there. We were walking around and we got some food. We got this triangle pie thing that was sooo good, I want to eat it again, and we also got some chicken that was amazing too!! Then we walked for a long time and got cold so we got some milk tea. So the names of the three things we got were 三角烧 (the triangle)，第一佳大鸡排 (the chicken)，and 薏米仙草奶茶 (the milk tea which had rice and black jelly balls inside..). I want to eat them all again because it was so good. After we got the milk tea we went into the metro station and sat down and we were just drinking the tea and chatting there. We talked for a long time, and finally at 9pm we decided we had better catch the subway. She needed to take me back to my stop to drop me because she can go back to her stop, and she needs to ride one hour to get to her stop. So we rode for a long time to get to my stop. Then she got out at my stop to say goodbye. She gave me a hug, also she gave me a gift of packaged chicken wings and duck feet..... I have yet to taste them. I gave her some gifts too, cigarettes that she requested, chocolate, and moose key chain with Maine on it. It was great. I was so happy on the way back catching the bus and then walking to my dorm, and I slept well because I was happy.

Today was busy as heck too but I don't think I want to say too much about it because I'm getting sleepy. I went to the orientation which was the international office people telling us about the school and other random things. Then we had the welcome lunch at the restaurant on campus. That was cool because I sat with 9 other people at a round table with the spinning thing in the middle and so many dishes, all of which I didn't recognize. I ate many things, some I don't want to eat again, and others I really enjoyed. I chatted with the people there and they were all nice. After chatting I wasn't as shy, and my craziness came out a little bit and I was yelling like my old self, and those people seemed to enjoy it. :D I was happy. We ll laughed a lot together. Then after the lunch I bought my books for class. I ended up not having to pay for them though because of the program with UMF. Yay! :)) And they put me in level 1 for Chinese but the teacher said I might be able to do level 2 since I know everything in the book already. So then I came to my room and then Robby and I went to walmart to get a few things. I still have not bought a fan yet because they are hard to find, but tomorrow for sure I will get one. I need it!!!!! Walmart was pretty crazy, different than in USA but still similar. haha. After shopping I got some noodles to go at a restaurant and came back to my room. I ate noodles and watched Pretty Little Liars online (I needed something American!). And now here I am sleepy as heck. Tomorrow I am going to climb a mountain with Vince so I will take a lot of photos.

Starting to miss everyone back home, but still really having a blast here!!!! :)

First Photos

Here are a few photos I have taken on my camera. I have more on my phone, only I am having trouble getting them out of there. I will share them as soon as I can.

So here's a plane with a cloud! I was lucky enough to have the window seat and literally nothing to do for nearly 14 hours so I actually took a few photos:

This one was later near the north pole!!!! There was ice down there and we were flying towards the sun (30 minutes before this photo it was dark out).

Look at that arctic snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first view of China, some mountains in the North!! I thought this was amazing. <3

Here is a giant bottle of Chinese water! If you know me you know I love water so I just couldn't resist this photo opp!!!

My official room, I love my blanket so fluffy! That floor is where the roach was roaming! I died!

Okay well, unfortunately I'm having technical difficulties and so the rest of the photos don't want to upload at this time. I will put them up later. :) 

KTV and Duck Neck!

It's Wednesday here now, so I need to catch you up now that I can finally post things I have written about the past few days! 

The day of Monday:

Now I am happy because I got some internet access which was limited but I was able to chat back home for a bit. That was good. Then I needed to get up and take a shower and go to the registration. Also I ate more food so that was good. At the registration I had to do many things. I ended up meeting a nice girl from Holland, but I don’t remember her name or where she lives. So much for that. So I got to the one of the stations in the registration and they were asking me to pay for the room and tuition. I told them I don’t have to because I am from Farmington and I am there on the scholarship and then they told me that I had to change rooms to the other building because the front desk put me in the more expensive room which isn’t covered by the scholarship. I was angry because that means I need to repack AGAIN and also I know that my new room isn’t going to be as nice as the one I already had. And it didn’t help that no one spoke good English so I couldn’t ask many questions. They said I need to wait until Tuesday to move.  After the registration I was hungry and I wanted to go out to find some food. On the way out I saw Maeve and she was crying because she wants to go home. So I took her back to my room to talk for a while. Then a Chinese woman who taught at UMF my 1^st year came to take us out to eat lunch at the campus restaurant. The restaurant was really nice and I ate a lot of good dishes, including duck, chicken, and pumpkin pie (Chinese style, I will take a photo if I eat it again because I really like that). Then while we were eating something very interesting happened. A Chinese boy came to our table and ask, “do you speak English?” I said, “是，我们都是美国人“ (Yes we are bother American), pointed to Maeve and myself. He said he was in the US for two years to study and he ask if he can have our phone number. I gave him my email address because I was a little creeped out. He said his name is Vince. He seemed pretty nice, and after a little chatting he went back to his table with his friends. Then later, when we were getting ready to leave he came back over and invited us to go to KTV with his friends and him. Maeve didn’t want to go, but I was up for it. I looked to Laoshi and she said she thinks it’s okay because they are students of this University. I decided to go because I need to make some friends, and I know who to call if I need some help. Plus there were some girls there so I wasn’t too worried. So I went and introduced myself. I had spoken Chinese and Vince’s friends were surprised, I guess they thought I cannot speak Chinese. So we chatted while walking out. I was talking to a girl, Amy. She was really nice and we ended up sticking together for the afternoon.  Vince drove his car to the KTV and Amy and I went with him. His car was so nice, man! He’s lucky. The KTV was near Carrefour. Vince took like 10 minutes to try to find the parking space. Then we went into the building up to the 5^th floor. It was so big and cool and I loved it!! We went to the room and the friends were already there singing some songs. They asked me if I was going to sing and I said, “I don’t have a good singing voice”. They said, “yeah but you can sing the English songs better than us”. So I ended up singing like 10 songs while I was there, some me and Amy or me and Vince did together. It was pretty fun there, and they wanted to take pictures with me and ask me so many questions. Amy said, “you’re so pretty”. Talk about feeling famous or something. They also bought me a bottle of water. So after 3 hours there Vince drove us back to the campus. I was going to meet Michelle because she was going to help me to log into the internet. So I was saying goodbye to Amy about to walk to my dorm and I heard someone call my name. It was Michelle. She was on her way to my dorm to meet me. She came over and started talking excitedly with Amy. Turns out they are friends. Out of like 20,000 Chinese students I managed to meet the friend of one I already knew!! So that was pretty insane. After chatting a bit Michelle and I went to my room and fixed the internet and then we wanted to go get something to eat. She took me to a Boazi place that she said is my friend Chiaping’s favorite place to eat. If you’re reading this, Chiaping, I hope you’re jealous! Because those Boazi were out of this world!!!! I also had some porridge there for the first time. Then after we ate there we went walking on the street looking at all the little food shops. I bought some cookies, and also a duck leg. Michelle bought the duck neck and made me eat it. It’s like little duck vertebrae nuggets that you put in your mouth and chew the meat off, the spit the bones out to the bag. It was an interesting experience, and though it wasn’t bad, I don’t know if I’m going to run out and buy some for myself. :P I saw some creepy things out there. Pigs feet, chicken feet, a whole duck with the head on that had been roasted, and also a dead chicken plucked and hanging by its legs from a bike handlebar. That’s nuts man!!! After that we went back to my room to hang out for a bit, and then Michelle went home. I was happy to enjoy the internet, only too bad like every site that I normally visit is blocked here. I am going to work on getting it unblocked! I went to bed kind of early though, because I was so sleepy.

Tuesday:

I got the chance to Skype my honey! <3 I was so happy about that, but I think seeing him made me miss him more. So after I took a shower and packed my things again!!! And moved AGAIN!!! And then I had met a Russian girl named Anastatia and so we went to the store together and to pizza hut. She is really nice but she doesn’t speak much English, and both of our Chinese is limited. And I don’t speak Russian!!! So our conversations were not very deep but it was still pleasant to be with her. She is very nice. After lunch I came back to my room to unpack again. >.<

Tuesday February 19, 2013 3:10pm

Omg I just had my first actual Chinese conversation with someone who does not know English and it was crazy man!!!!!!! And I think I was successful in the conversation even though sometimes I had some trouble, the woman is the cleaning woman here and she is soooooo nice!!!! She told me I am pretty and that my Chinese is good and I told her about America and she asked me if I like it here in Beijing and I said I love it! Wahhh I feel so proud of myself right now!! She said she is Ayi, oh my god it was just so crazy and fun!!!! I think it’s a little bit easier to talk to her than to a foreigner who is trying to speak Chinese. We had a good talk. They were making the bed here in my room for the roommate who should be coming soon. I am happy.

Later Tuesday:

Michelle and I met up for dinner. I was supposed to go to see her at 5:30pm on the main campus because we were going to eat in the dining hall. So I was on the computer watching the time. Then Michelle called at 4:35pm so I thought she got out of work early. She asked, “Audrey, are you coming?” I was so confused. Then I realized my computer was in American time and it was really 5:35pm and I was late! Haha but Michelle just thought it was funny. I changed the time there now so I don’t get confused again. So I went to the campus and it was the first time that I went there like way inside and I thought it was really nice. I met Michelle in front of the new library and we went to the dining hall that she claims is one of the better ones on campus. I just went simple and got a bowl of spicy fried rice with beef and some other questionable meat that I didn’t dare to ask about. I thought it was good though. So Michelle and I chatted, and I looked around and was the only white person in there, everyone else was Chinese. Guess the foreigners don’t like the dining hall.. After eating we walked around the campus so I can see it, and then we went out the east gate to the outlet Mall to look around. It wasn’t crowded at all, Michelle said it’s expensive there because it’s like big brand names, like Coach and Gucci. There was also a Cold Stone Creamery there!! What a place. After I came back to my dorm and just relaxed for the night. Oh, and I saw a cockroach in my room and died. The end.

Wednesday February 20, 2013

Woke up early, 6:30am. Just checked emails through the morning and hoped I didn’t see another roach. Then I got ready and went to take the placement test. It was awful, the written portion was so hard I didn’t even know what the instructions were asking, so I didn’t answer many questions there. I think the oral test went better, and the woman was nice. I had to read something, and answer some of her questions, and then we were just chatting about random things. Then she said I could go and when I went to the elevator I met another American named Jade. She is from Missouri, and she is very nice. So we walked to the dorm together, and then we went to Carrefour together (it was her first time there, I guided her). After the store we ate in KFC. That was nuts because I never ordered without a Chinese person before, so I asked, “你会说英文吗？” (Do you speak English?). The woman said no and gave me a picture menu and I pointed and said the amount and size. I got fries and what I thought was chicken but it wasn’t. Too bad for me. Also we went to a bakery and I got some goodies there. Then I came back here and hung my clothes on the hangers I bought. In other news, I just washed some grapes and went to enjoy them. I popped one in my mouth and what a surprise I got. Seeds!!! I’ve never eaten seed-in grapes before. No wonder they were so big… But they are tasty.

P.S. I finally have a way to unblock things, so now I can update this blog and it won’t be weird!! (It’s been weird writing in word and then pasting when I can get online).

More to come later. :D

First days in Beijing

Well, it’s hard to believe that I’m sitting in my bed, in the International Dorm at the Beijing University of Technology, in Beijing, China. Is this real? It is 3am Beijing time; I went to bed at 10:30pm and woke up just after 2am. Being unable to sleep and all alone in my room, I decided now might be a good time to document my journey.

Leaving yesterday, or at least yesterday to me, even though it’s currently Sunday here, was hard. I hate goodbyes, and I did cry, but not as much as I expected. While I was sad when saying goodbye to my friends, saying goodbye to my honey was the hardest in Portland Jetport. At that moment I was wishing I didn’t have to go, because being away for a long time really kills me. So I cried, and the people in the security line kept looking at me, so I decided to stop. It didn’t help that every time I looked back, Huy was still standing there watching me make my way through security. But I’m glad he was still there each time I looked back until I was past the checkpoint.

After that my mind went numb. All I was thinking about was what I need to do next. Being hungry I decided I needed some food to begin. There was a Starbucks next to my gate so I went up there to get some coffee cake. I’m pretty sure I went in the wrong side of the line judging by the way the guy who I guess what actually in front of me, was looking at me. Already making embarrassing mistakes in public and I wasn’t even out of Maine yet!

Another trouble about being your first time flying is you don’t know anything about where the bathroom is, and you feel kind of dumb to ask. My plan was to wait until I got on the plane and then I would find it in there. Only too bad for me because the flight ended up getting delayed a few times by ten minutes each time. It wasn’t long enough for me to run around for a bathroom, so I just stood at the gate impatiently waiting for our aircraft to arrive. Finally we boarded the plane, but of course I didn’t want to go before we took off, so I had to pee AND I was nervous since it was my first flight. When the plan started to move forward to get to its space on the runway my heart was pounding so hard. Also I was sitting next to a woman who I’m guessing was from New York and took flights often; she was sitting there reading her book while I was secretly freaking out in the seat next to her. I kept clam though, and when we took off, I actually LOVED it. Using the plane’s bathroom for the first time was a little bit weird for me, but other than that I enjoyed watching the map on my little screen and looking out the window way down at the New England coast. Landing was also very smooth, however, since we were delayed, I was one hour late getting to New York.

*Side note: you know you’re in China when there are fireworks being set off at 3am on a random day of the week, granted it is still technically Chinese New Year here.

So New York. I got there and hurried to get my bags out of the baggage claim. Then I had to find the air tram to get me out of terminal 5 and into terminal 1. I asked around and got there and on the tram. Then I made another stupid move. There announcer said to check to directory of airlines for your stop, so I was double checking it. I saw China Airlines was actually terminal 4. So I got off at the terminal 4 stop and then realized I was an idiot because my airline is Air China!!! So I jumped back on that thing and got to terminal one, then I was dragging my luggage up this long hallway that was uphill. Granted my luggage was all connected and could roll, I was still sweating like mad with my back on and a sweater and winter jacket. I must have looked crazy when I arrived at the ticket counter with sweat on my brow. There was no line at the counter and I thought it was odd. I got my ticket and then I needed to bring my luggage to the luggage men. I went over and the guy said something I didn’t understand, I thought he was telling me to do something with my bags. So I asked, “what?” and he said, “Why you so late for this flight!” Ahhhhh. It was 10 minutes to 3pm, and 3pm was boarding time and I still had to go through the security again. I told him about the delay and then ran away. I got to the security check in which looked a lot different than the one in Portland. There were 4 lines, long ones. I jumped in the first one, and within 15 minutes I made it through and was running for the gate. I was right in time for my turn to board, and boy that plan was BIG and CROWDED. And more than 50% of the people there were Chinese, so I felt like I was almost already in China. Because I got there so late I didn’t find Maeve so I ended up boarding in my seat and sitting with a Chinese boy who didn’t talk to me at all, which made a pretty awkward 13 hour flight. Since he didn’t greet me when I sat down in my seat (which I had window seats for both flights! :D ), I was too shy to say anything to him. Also I didn’t hear him speak any English and I was afraid to say anything in Chinese to him. It was just weird though, sitting next to a guy eating the meal and he doesn’t say one word. I had drank a lot of water too, and this became troublesome when he had fallen asleep, and the only way I could get out of my seat to go to the bathroom was if I wake him up and ask him to move. Finally I shook his should a little bit saying, “excuse me”. Nothing happened. I sat there for a minute or two, and then tried again with the same results. After the third time I was wondering that the heck I should do because I didn’t want to creepily get in his space and scare him awake, but I was bouncing around with a full bladder! I sat there contemplating my options and about 10 minutes later he just woke up on his own, phew! I said, “Can I get out?” and he moved and I went to the bathroom and then was stretching and walking around trying to find Maeve. I thought I saw Maeve but the lights were dim and she was sleeping so I could not really tell and I went and sat in my seat.

The night was rather confusing. It got dark around 7pm or so, and I was starting to feel sleepy around 10pm. I was dozing off a little bit but I also hard some leg cramps, which was awful, so I didn’t really sleep. Then all of the sudden just after 11, it got lighter and lighter, and the sky was pink way out yonder. It was very beautiful, and then when I looked at the ground I was stunned too. It was ice caps down there, something I never saw before. That was the time that we were projected as just above Canada, it was crazy! I’m a nature freak so I was staring at it for a long time. Then I was awake and disappointed because we still had nearly 5 more hours on the flight! >.< I just wanted to get the heck out of there. I listened to music and dozed a bit, but every time I opened my eyes to see the time, only 5 or 10 minutes had passed. Plus I was so uncomfortable there with no room and an awkward guy next to me on his iPad. I was excited at 2am when they came out with a meal and drinks again (the first meal was at 5pm and I was soooo hungry). Well, both meals were pretty weird. The first one was beef with peppers, rice that was dry as heck, green beans, yogurt, fruit salad (which was the highlight), and another salad thing that I had no idea what it was. For 2am meal I had pork and noodles. At least the noodles were not dry like the rice. Instead they were really thick and doughy, also not the best. But it was better than nothing; since I didn’t have any snacks with me because I thought you were not allowed to bring food there!! I felt so envious of the guy chowing down on bananas and apples in front of me when I was hungry as heck.

Soon we were in China 37,000 feet above going 596mph! That in itself was unreal to me. When we started to go down more I could see a lot of snow and then mountains that looked amazing, my first view of China. Then for the last hour of the flight I didn’t see anything, as you can imagine why. It was so “foggy” I couldn’t see the wing of the plane anymore. I was surprised the pilot could land that thing!!! But he did! When we got out of the plane we went downstairs and outside into the middle of nowhere. The air hit me so thick and I was coughing and my mask was somewhere in my bag. Maeve was really upset on arrival and I felt bad for her. We all piled onto this bus, no moving room, Chinese style! I found that people really do push to get through so I started to do the same. Maeve had said, “Wait our turn” and I said, “Our turn will never come!” as people continued to walk in front of us in one of the lines to get out of some place that I don’t know. We went into some line for foreigners, a first for me. Then we had to go to get our bags by riding a metro kind of thing to get there. We got our bags and then had to ask around to find the place where we were getting picked up. After running around more than one hour we made it out to the guy holding the sign for BJUT. We said hi and he said his name was Robby. He’s from Zambia here for his full degree in engineering. He was a nice guy, and we went to the parking area and a driver came out of the car and packed out stuff to the trunk. We drove almost 20 minutes from the airport to the dorm. My chest hurt a little bit from the air. I was sitting in the car and thinking, “hmm it smells like dirt or something in here…” Then I remembered it was the hazy air that tinted everything light brown color. And there was no snow anywhere!! It just did not seem real, zooming around the highway of Beijing. We got to the dorm and when we got in, Michelle was there waiting for me at the desk to come in! She was so sweet. She translated for me because the other woman only spoke Chinese, and I signed up for room 306, with a Korean roommate on the way! Maeve is across the hall in 305. I went and put my things and then changed my shirt because I wanted to look fresh since Michelle was taking to out to eat dinner with her two friends, Olivia and Angie. We walked down the street and turned to a BBQ place, and I was a little bit shocked. It was so dirty, and there were bones and cigarettes all over the floor! It’s not that I didn’t know about that, I had just forgotten, and it was a shock to see for the first time. Also there were signs saying no smoking but many people smoked anyway and I was coughing. I felt so tired I thought I was going to pass out on the table; at that point I was awake for 27 hours, but even longer because of the time difference. To me it was still Friday night but to the girls it was Saturday night. Even now I’m still confused. The girls were nice and they ordered many dishes. I ate some of it but honestly I was so tired I didn’t enjoy it all that much. Even the dumplings were not making me happy. I just needed to sleep (but I was also very hungry so I needed to eat too). After we ate, we went to a store called Dia so I could buy some shower supplies and hand soap. Another embarrassing moment occurred. When I left my room I only took 30RMB because I wasn’t thinking about the money, so when my bill in the store was 128RMB I was like, “uh-oh”. Angie lent me 100RMB so I was okay. Michelle said, “You only brought 5 dollars?” I said, “Yeah I guess I don’t know the money yet…” We went back to the dorm and I was going to try to use the internet in the computer room there to send an email, but too bad for me the internet wasn’t working, and mine cannot be in my room until I get my student card which I think is on Monday. I gave Michelle a note to email for me when she went back to her dorm. I hope she did it already. When she left I came to my room and unpacked a few things and turned on the tv. Some Chinese thing was on and I was sitting here so numb, like how the heck am I in China right now? I brushed my teeth at 10:10pm and was feeling dizzy because I was tired. I got into my hard and uncomfortable bed, and tried to sleep. No fan, traffic outside was annoying, and I was cold because I don’t have enough blankets. I slept and woke within an hour and put my sweater and jacket on the bed as a blanket. That was much better. I slept until after 2am but then I can’t sleep so here I am and it’s nearly 4am and I’m finishing this eating a Clif Bar (good thing I had it in my luggage!). I’m still tired so I will try to sleep again. I just have so many mixed feelings right now. I’m missing home already and in complete culture shock mode for sure. And not having internet for the first 2 days is not helping matters much. In my mind before sleeping I was wondering, why the heck did I even come here? It’s uncomfortable and scary and smoggy and I don’t know what the heck people are saying. I was getting pretty sad but I was too tired and numb to cry. I just lied in my bed and thought of home and tried to calm myself. It’s only for a little while, and this is only my first day, so I’m not surprised that I’m wishing I were not here. I just want my roommate to come so I don’t have to be alone in this room, which looks like a hotel room since it was a hotel once. I even have a bathroom in my room which is pretty cool, but the tub looks weird… My plans for today after I sleep and get up again will be to go with Angie and Olivia to the market to get a blanket, snacks for the room, and toilet paper (good thing I packed tissues!). Also I will look for a big towel. All they had in the store last night were face towels. I will spend the day trying to make the room look a little more like my own place and unpack. I really hope my roommate comes today!

Well that’s my adventure so far.

Just trying to make the most of my time here, even if it is scary at first. I just say to myself, 加油, and keep on fighting and being strong!

Missing everyone back home so much! <3

Monday February 18^th 2013 5:24am

Of course I’m awake at odd hours. Last night I was so tired I fell asleep at 9:30pm and I woke up at 4am this morning. I’m so bored right now because there is no internet and no one else is awake around here and I don’t understand anything on tv so it gives me a headache. Also I have not eaten much since I got here because my appetite has not been around, but I proudly ate a banana this morning which is a step in the right direction! Now I’m eating a granola bar that I bought yesterday at the market!

Yesterday was interesting. I woke up in the morning and cleaned myself up and was about to leave the room at 9:30am or so to go see Maeve, but I couldn’t open the door to my room. I was stuck inside my room and I didn’t know how to get out of there. I started to bang on the door calling Maeve since her room is across the hall but she didn’t come. Then I decided to call the front desk and try to explain what was wrong. In my horrible Chinese I said, “Hello this is Audrey, my door will not open, I am in my room”. Then I said something in English and the women responded in English saying they will send someone there. I was waiting and I heard someone was knocking on Maeve’s door, so I thought it was the repair people. I said, “hello??” and a woman said, “hello? This is Tina Wang, can I come in to talk?” I was so excited!!! Tina Wang is the lady in charge of the International students from the US. I told her I am stuck in there and I slide my room key card under the door and she opened it. She came inside and was going to try to fix the door. I was about to say maybe I should go outside before she shuts the door but it was too late. We were both locked in my room!! She said, “sit down” and then we were just talking a bit. She was so nice and helpful and I was happy she was speaking English because I don’t know if I could have had a productive conversation otherwise. She was asking me about Maeve who wants to go home. Then the repair man came and opened the door for us and they were trying to fix it. Tina went to talk to Maeve and I was just sitting watching 3 people attempt to fix the door handle which would not open from the inside. It was funny because they were speaking Chinese to me and I had no idea what was going on. Then I went to buy some water in the machine downstairs and I told the women and she smiled at me, probably because my Chinese is funny. I came back and was talking to Maeve because Tina had to go to work (on a Sunday!). Then the woman came and was telling me something in Chinese. I laughed because I didn’t know what she was saying. She was so cute though because she was smiling and talking and then she came closer to me when she spoke, like it would help me understand Chinese or something. I found that to be funny. Then she was pointing and doing hand motions, and I guess she was telling me I need to change rooms, because a few minutes later Robby helped me and they gave me the key card for room 308 (mine was 306 before). I moved my stuff there and then Robby offered to take Maeve and I out shopping because I needed to buy some things.  We went to a huge store called Carrefour. It was so big and had many things to buy there. It was like a million times better than Walmart and I loved it so much. I got a blanket that I love! And when we were going to get the blanket a woman was there to help. She was opening the blanket bag to let me touch it and decide what one I like the best, and I even spoke some Chinese to her!! :D So I bought many things there and I was just enjoying the whole experience there. After we took the bus back to the dorm and I put all my things away and was happy about the new blanket. I also unpacked all of my things into my new room and got comfortable there. Later I ate some instant noodles and then I became very tired so I fell asleep for a while. Then Angie called because she and Olivia were going to take me out because I still had more things to buy (crazy, I know). So first I went to get a sim card for my Chinese cell phone, so now I have a Chinese phone number. Then we went yet again to Carrefour!!!! I was happy. We took the bus there and back. I bought water and toilet paper and those kinds of things, and then I went back to my room, it was 8:30pm already. I was pretty tired and I ended up falling asleep with my clothes on and the light on. I woke up and changed and brushed my teeth and then I went back to sleep. 

More to come later!!!

Only a few days left in the good old USA

I'm trying to eat all the things I love and see all the people I love, as I only have a few days left in America before I take off. It's weird because I had been saying "3 months until I go to China" or "5 weeks until I go to China"... Now I'm shocked when I say, "I'm leaving for China on Friday". THIS FRIDAY! 5 DAYS!! And while the thought is insane to me, and in a way hard to comprehend, I STILL feel like nothing is really happening, like I'm not really going there.. it's just some magical dream. But it's true, and it's coming so fast.

And packing, well, I have a list, and I have moved a few things into piles... that's a good start I think. Tomorrow I will really start doing the work of getting some things stored away and others packed into my luggage.

I was sad about going a few weeks ago, and I'm still sad now, but my excitement is actually increasing with packing! Not to mention I am looking forward to meeting two friends who I have talked to online who will be in Beijing waiting for me. :) It's calming to know that I will not be completely alone. I will be traveling with Maeve, the other student from my University going to BJUT, and I will have people I already know in Beijing and many new friends. I'm wondering and dreaming about what my life is going to be like next week. Will I be able to speak Chinese well enough for people to understand me? Will I feel comfortable in my new bed (because that's very important to me!)? Will my roommate be a nice girl who will help me through the transition? I hope so! So even though I'm feeling emotional about leaving my life here for a while, I'm really looking forward to this new life waiting for me in Beijing. Not to mention, Vietnam after that!

So I spend my days looking out the window, really looking at the environment that I know so well. I let the view of snow and trees and blue sky seep into my mind, taking a mental picture because I will miss this. But onward I will go, out into the world for a little while, and then I will return back to my little world.