Friday June 6: Arrival after 13 hours in a plane from Chicago to Beijing. I sat on a center seat in the middle section of the biggest plane I’ve ever been on, a 747. I asked for a free upgrade to first class, but didn’t have any frequent flier miles, so…didn’t happen. The men on either side of me were not very talkative, likely because they didn’t speak English. The first time I began to feel like a foreigner was when I noticed that more people on the plane had black hair than brown. The stewardesses and pilot were American though, so the transition wasn’t complete. A really cool GPS program displayed an image of our location as we passed over the north pole and northern Asia. Having not slept the night before was a good decision because it was the only reason I was able to sleep with the upright seats and medium to large sized men at my sides. I was trying to think my way into the time zone as much as possible, but it didn’t get dark on the plane at all. For listening enjoyment I watched part of some forgettable movies and listened to an early 90s Seattle rock radio station on loop for a while. For food enjoyment(?), I ate almost all of Meredith’s dried cherries in between the two chopstick friendly meals.
IES people (the program I’m here with) were waiting for me after customs, which I might as well say was a joke. One lady looked at my passport for about half a second, and when I finally got my checked bags back, I practically just walked out the door after passing by some guards. The airport was very impressive…and clean. The government built it as part of the massive project of getting ready for the Beijing Olympics this August.
On the bus ride over to the university there was extensive traffic, more than I expected, but ignorantly…there are 17 million registered people that live in Beijing. That doesn’t count all of the migrant workers that have moved in to facilitate the construction. The work is dangerous (I just saw a man walking along a crane 6 stories up right outside my window with no semblance of a harness. Recently, some underground construction collapsed killing several workers), and they might receive 1000 RMB per month. The exchange rate right now is 1 USD = 6.83 RMB. Pretty good for me, but it is going down as people get hyped up for “the big party.”
My room in the international student dorm is very nice. I have my own room! … with a TV! You can’t flush the toilet paper or drink the tap water, but other than that, it is very comfortable. The first night we had a couple of orientation lectures and some American styled subs, staying up as late as possible to avoid jet lag.
