Arrival and then some...

After a particularly difficult faculty meeting one day last October, I decided it was time for a change. Who would have thought that little brainstorm would bring me all the way to Beijing, China.



Well, I made it. I woke up at 3:00 in the morning on Tuesday and arrived at the airport with four 50 pound suitcases and two carry ons in tow. I never would have made it without my mother. After a great struggle to get all my bags checked, my flight left out of Greenville at 6:15. I had a couple hours of free time in Newark, New Jersey before boarding the plane bound for Beijing. My memories of that are numbness in my limbs after hours of sitting. I did not know that the flight would take me over the Arctic Ocean and Siberia before landing in China.



I was met by the Elementary School principal, Shawna, and brought directly to the school (at this point it was about 2:30 pm here, am US time and I had very little sleep on the flight) I met Tim McDonald, the Headmaster, had a tour of the school, sat and chatted in his office and finally came to Sri's apartment. Sri is the business manager for the high school part of the school and has taken me in until I find an apartment. I was a Sri's for a short time before leaving to have dinner with several other teachers from the school. Where did we go? The Sizzler! My first meal in China was at an American Steakhouse. It was still interesting. Water was served in coffee mugs and what was labeled as French dressing was a white creamy dressing of some sort. I was in a complete zombie state by the time we finally made it back to Sri's around 8:00 in the evening.

First impressions- at first glance Beijing is a lot like any major city in the US- lots of people, buses, cars, tall buildings, shops and restaurants. It was not until the next day that everything began to seem sooooooo different.