Finally in China!

Well, I'm finally in China! I traveled for about 27 hours straight, and arrived in Guiyang at 12:45am on Friday August 18. Susie, another ULS teacher, and Charlie, my school's foreign affairs officer, met me at the airport. We drove back to Anshun, and at about 2:30am stopped for an "early breakfast". We got to my apartment by 3:00.

We stayed in Anshun until Saturday afternoon. I unloaded my belongings and did some cleaning in the apartment. I live on the fifth floor, which is six flights of stairs up. I'll certainly get some exercise! I have a lot to do in the apartment before I get it so that it feels like home...

We took a bus on Saturday back to Guiyang (where Susie lives). I'm staying with her until the other members of my team arrive on Friday. Kara is another ULS teacher in Guiyang, and I'm spending my time with Susie and Kara. They have lived in Guiyang since February, but are pretty well aquainted with the city.

I'm very excited to be in China. It is definitely different than I was expecting. To me it doesn't look that different from other developing countries I've visited (Nicaragua and Bolivia). There are shops up and down all of the streets. The buildings are concrete and a little dingy. The food is different, the toilets are different, the smells are different. I was a little overwhelmed by my apartment because the people who had lived there before me hadn't thrown away some of their "junk." They left used toothbrushes, and empty shampoo bottles. All of the "stuff" in the apartment felt like the apartment wasn't really mine. But I cleaned most of that out, and now it feels better. Seeing Susie and Kara's apartments makes me feel better. I'm sure that I can put things on the walls and really make my apartment feel like home...

I'm grateful for this week of "nothing" before classes start. Since I'm not in my apartment I can't work on it. So I feel a little un-useful. But at the same time, it is nice to get used to being in China. The language is still really hard, but I'm trying! And I'm getting used to riding the bus (it costs about 12 cents to get anywhere in the city) and listening to vendors tell me how much things cost.

When I get back to my apartment and get my internet set up, I can post some photos. The mountains here are really beautiful. I'm glad to be here.

I'll definitely write more later!