Roughing It

It's been an eventful few days. I arrived in Beijing at 5:30 a.m. local time Thursday morning and took a taxi from Beijing's beautiful airport to my Aiyi's house. The taxi ride was great and the taxi driver's first words to me after learning where I was from were "Obama!". Hmm...

During the taxi ride the driver served as my personal guide to Beijing. Since it was so early in the morning the streets were bare and traffic wasn't that heavy which made it pretty ideal for site seeing. Since starting Pimsleur about a year and a half ago I have been looking near and far for Chang An Jie (Long Peace Street). Guess what? I found it not to mention Tiananmen Square.

I arrived at Aiyi's house and she fed me and fed me and fed me and fed me. We talked. She knows no English and I barely know Chinese. Then she took me shopping for a coat at a pretty nice mall. I got a 90% down knee length coat for 530 Yuan (about $80 US). We were in a mall but she was still able to bargain. I think I messed her up though by proclaiming that I found more money in my pocket and so could afford the much higher price. Oh well.

Later, after dinner, she took me by taxi to the train station to catch the Linyi bound train that departed at 11:34 PM. Aiyi got me safely on the train and found me people that were heading to the same city and told them to watch out for me. They really did that helping me with my luggage and telling me how to maneuver through the crowds and where and when to show my ticket. They were all so helpful. I read a little on the train but mostly slept.

Anyway, the train took me to Linyi and I arrived 10:30 am. the next morning. My manager and a co-worker were at the train station to meet me and show me to the apartment which is really nice and spacious but lacks one very important and much needed feature - HEAT! It's freezing in this joint. In fact, it's often colder IN the apartment than it is OUT. Nevertheless I love it. :-)

I have been observing classes that my manager has been teaching and will be teaching my first English language class tomorrow...

I think Fridays will be my personal days to reflect on why I'm here and to make sure I can continue to find the motivation to keep me here...

Pictures are forthcoming...