Prepare for some ramblings

We've been in China for about 4 days now and it's just been go go go the whole time. After arriving in Zhengzhou (to be referred to as ZZ from now on) late night and getting made fun of for having so much luggage, we were showed to our new home for the next year. It is an apartment complex across the street from our school. Between jet lag, tireness, shock of a new place, and a bunch of other things working against me, the apartment wasn't exactly what I was expecting. First impression was not good, but I think that we will make it work and make it much homier later. It just needs a few basics. I will go into more detail and provide pics about the apartment later.

The next day we had three Chinese ladies drives us around town kind of unsuccessfully. Long story short, I think we drove around for a total of three hours and got one thing accomplished: going to the police station to register. Since that was something that had to be done within 24 hours of arrival, I guess it's a good thing we got that done at least. We'll have tons more administrative things to do when we get back.

In the am on the 4th we took the high speed 5 hour train to Beijing. It was actually a very good experience. We had leg room galor and it was a relatively painless ride. Next time we'll know to bring food. Also, the train is on time to the T. I think we even left a minute early. I know I'll be taking that train again many times in the future so I'm glad is a painless experience.

After getting off of the train we were finally in Beijing! I honestly cannot explain to you the sheer size of the buildings around you. If you think you've ever felt small, well try imagining feeling even smaller than that. The train station itself was massive. Even using the word massive doesn't seem to do it justice. I was simply HUGE!

Since my mom was already in Bejing, we went straight to the tea shop with all of our stuff. We show up in the middle of a puppet show and mid lunch. It was like hit the ground running here in Beijing. My traveling group for the next few days are going to be : Me (behind the camera), Brandon, Jim, Mom (Julie), JinLan, and Mr. Chen. Mr. Chen has been the best host ever! He orders every meal for us and hires cars for us and has planned our entire time in Beijing to the T!

So far I have eaten: dumplings, peking pork wrapped in a sort of pancake, peking duck, all sorts of duck parts (heart, liver, feet, soup), jelly fish salad and much more. I passed on the duck brain. It's all relatively good, but doesn't always hit the spot. At least I won't go hungry.

duck heart

The closest plate is duck liver, then the one to the left is a jelly fish salad, then the far back one is duck feet. The tall green one is a spinach christmass tree.

Right after lunch, we went to the Temple of Heaven. For after dinner drinks we went to this lake (Back Sea -  the emperor apparently named all bodies of water a sea) that was surrounded by bars. It was a total tourist trap like in Mexico where bars try to lure you in. But it was really pretty since there were boats on the lake with lit up lanterns. And since all the bars were covered in neon lights and stuff, it was very colorful and very pleasing to the eyes.

Today was the Great wall, and tomorrow we go shopping in the am and off to Shanghai we go! O yea we also saw the Bird's nest from the 2008 Olympics!

I have so much more to say, but I only have two hours to nap and shower before the Bejing Opera tonight, that my post is quick, snappy and lacking details. But we're alive and having fun!

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