It's now 9:32 pm on Thursday, and I'm pretty exhausted. Haven't been in a bed since I woke up Tuesday morning in Austin, but it's been a pretty exciting trip. I did have 6 hours to burn in the LA airport yesterday evening (or I guess technically Tuesday evening - I'm so disoriented with time right now), but those passed fairly quickly between phone calls, randomly running into a friend from high school who was on his way to serve 2 years in the South Korean military, making faces at myself in the glass windows, walking laps around the terminal, playing a nice politically incorrect game of guess the destination of the plane at this gate based on the ethnicities of the people in the boarding area, and demolishing a half-can of BBQ Pringles. It was 3:45 am Texas time by the time I boarded the plane so I conked out for a good portion of the 14 hour trans-pacific flight to Hong Kong, then had to rush to the connecting flight in Beijing. An escort dude helped me get through security and all that quickly but unfortunately my bags apparently weren't quick enough as they didn't show up in Beijing when I did, which has been a little stressful, but we'll just do what we can.
The place I'm staying is pretty interesting. It's in the very central part of the city in the hutongs, which are basically the "old" part of Beijing. Walking around you see all the elderly Chinese men (with their shirts raised up so their bellies can get air - it's hot!) playing Majong and smoking and kids peeing on the streets and what not. Other than this internet access in my room, which is sweet, the hotel fits into the neighborhood pretty well. There is, for example, more than one dysfunctional toilet placed at various places in the hall on my floor, including right outside the elevator, but all in all, it should be pretty good. :). Tomorrow we have an orientation deal after which I will hopefully feel a little more oriented, and I'm super excited to start learning this language!!
The sweet view from our room - Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon much?
Street View of the Hutong
The Summer Style Here
One of the several random toilets in the hall in the hotel. This one welcomes you right when you exit the elevator. The first day there was half a watermelon in the bowl part.
I'm too tired to compose much more right now. Gonna go try and track down these suitcases so I can get a shower and go to bed. Hope y'all are great!
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