Across the Sea

Greetings from beautiful Beijing!

 We arrived Tuesday evening, and were taken out for "Beijing Duck" and many other dishes, by our one known friend here, two people from the main school we'll be working with, and another friend. There is a right and wrong way to eat the duck, which kind of cuts the greasiness. It was delightful.

Carving the duck

The next three days were a blur. We went to meet the principal of the (main) school. (Between the two of us, we will be teaching at 4 schools.) Then we were taken around to look at several apartments that had been selected for us. We liked one, but were supposed to look at more, selected by our one friend. I'll call him M.

We went up to M's school, and told him what we'd seen, and when he heard we found one we liked within our price range, he urged us to just take it and not look at his, as they were more expensive. One of M's staff took us to get a Chinese sim card so that we can use our phones here. HOWEVER, the phones cannot yet be unlocked from our US account, so... we have no data plan.

Oh well.

That was just Wednesday!

On Thursday, we spent the morning going to get the medical check-up for our work visas. What an eye-opener! It took an hour to get there, but we saw about 10 medical professionals in a half-hour. It was so stream-lined we only spent a few moments with each. Actually, that half-hour included getting pictures taken and queuing to pay! America could really learn something there. The sacrifice? No bedside manner. It was very abrupt, but that is, to me, a worthwhile sacrifice.

We spent the afternoon wandering through an historic, yet touristy area, and saw a wild selection of trinkets to send back as gifts someday.

I love the funny English

Long story short, yesterday we signed a lease and took over the biggest suitcases. Today we will finish moving in, clean, and explore our new neighborhood.

In our neighborhood. There are trees throughout the city, actually.

Joy of joys - Today begins a week-long holiday for Chinese National Day. So we can settle in, buy necessities like bedding, and visit some well-known sites (I'm looking at you, Tienanmen and Forbidden City)!

Tragedy - We do not yet have wifi at our new home, so it will again be at least a week before I can post.