China: Day 1

4 hours of delayed flights, 13 hours of flying, and a 4 hour bus ride in the middle of the night, we finally arrived at the school at 2 AM. 

Traveling was a nightmare. our first flight got delayed and would have made us miss our connecting flight, except that our second flight also got delayed 3 hours. So we finally left San Francisco at 4:30, and took the long 12 hour flight to Shanghai. Once we arrived there, we had to go through customs and all that. I got a sweet new stamp on my passport! And luckily all my luggage made it safely with me! (That was my biggest concern about this entire 6 month trip was that they would lose my luggage). So then we had to rush through the airport because apparently in China there's a law that we had to get on the road before 10:00 or we would be stuck at the airport... weird. I know. And it was pouring rain the entire drive, and the bus was LEAKING. yeah. so not fun. 4 hours on a bus that barely fit all 20 of us with our luggage, and a leaking ceiling. It was an adventure for sure. 

So our dorms are super nice. Compared to the rest of China. We actually having flushing toilets! We're so spoiled. Except that we can't flush the toilet paper... And the water will make us sick so we have to brush our teeth with bottled water... And I got to take a freezing cold shower this morning because the water is only hot for 4 hours a day at certain times. And we're constantly freezing because there's no heater in the hallways, only in our rooms... And the remote for it is in Chinese. It took us a good 3 hours to figure it out. The beds are awful. The mattresses are literally two inches thick. It's like sleeping on the floor. Except I think my carpet at home is probably more comfortable. Because we're so tired it hasn't been too bad yet... But I'm definitely going to invest in a very thick blanket to sleep on.

So far the food hasn't been bad! For lunch there was some fried pork and rice, with some spinach type stuff... And then dinner we had some eggs with peppers and rice again... I'm pretty sure we'll be living off of rice. And the McDonalds down the street. Tonight after dinner we went down to the mall. And I had a McFlurry and it was the most heavenly thing ever. Hopefully I'll get used to the food, if not.. I have 20 granola bars. Lets see how long I can make those last...

That's about it!
Teaching starts Monday!
Can't wait!