Hello faithful blog readers. Well, we are officially in Beijing. It's our second day here. We just spent our first night in our apartments. We have a pretty beautiful place from what I have heard from the other members of our team. I share a room with Melinda--the other young person on my team. We really get along well and we have a beautiful view of Beijing from our 5th floor apartment.
Some sad news--the one member from our team had to go home before we left for China because her biopsy's results were positive. we miss her a lot and have shed several tears for her. she got the news after already checking her luggage, so i am not sure how she got her luggage, but we did not see it during baggage claim in Beijing. Our team has gone through several changes since its initial assignments, but we know that it will all work out.
Getting here was another story however. Our flight to Shanghai was wonderful, not too much turbulence and very helpful flight attendants. however, when we arrived in Shanghai, our plane had been delayed for weather reasons. So, we ended up staying at the airport for about 6 hours. It really would not have been a big deal, if it did not feel like I hadn't slept for about 24 hours. I had no energy and just wanted to sleep. I tried really hard to just let myself fall asleep, but it was a little difficult in the airport. However, I did finally snatch a 40 minute nap. Our plane finally left at about 3:30 early morning for Beijing. When we got to the airport, it was about 5:30 and then we all went with our respected team people to our different schools. We had breakfast ready when we got to our place, and then we all went and took a litle nap. That day consisted of getting needed supplies for our apartments, changing over our cash, meeting our head lady, napping, and just getting settled in.
We also had the wonderful chance to eat at a banquet with our head lady. She is oh so kind. The Chinese banquet is a fine art. They have restaurants where each table is in its own little banquet room. They serve delicious green tea and bring out one or two dishes at a time and set it on a lazy Susan table. The waitresses prepare your chopsticks and set up your napkin for you. It's wonderful. It was a little challenging for me to use the chopsticks--I was sweating because I was so nervous. I think I only dropped a few pieces of food and luckily they landed on my plate.
Today, we are just getting some more things that we need to teach and we are also getting ready to teach. We will have open house for our students where they can come and meet us in our rooms. Our teachers will also be living on camps, so that means we will have plenty of chances to hang out with them. I cannot wait to meet them. Please drop me an email if you have any news to share with me. thank you for thinking of me.
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