NWA flight 25 has landed.

So all those cool little buttons at the top of this blog are definitely in Chinese now.. but after enough trial and error I have come across this screen.

With the extreme sleep deprivation that comes from a 12 hour flight surrounded by a 45 minute and 3 hour flight followed by a 2.5 hour car ride to the apartment (read: solid 28 hours sans sleep) my mentality was a constant flux of giddy-ness and "why the hell did I want to come here" and it was either one or the other.

On the plane, going to Japan, a man in front of me dropped his pillow behind the seat. I was, apparently, extremely engrossed in reading did not see the incident at all. He kept looking, I stayed oblivious, and eventually he said something in broken English. "Is that your pillow?" Is that your pillow? Come on now. I checked and sure enough I did have my pillow. I guess the point of this is I keep encountering people who are nice to the point of being excessive. Today I was walking back from the bus stop, totally lost, and asking strangers where the east gate was (which leads to my apartment.. which I barely recognize). The thing about not really knowing where you are going and meandering around here is you can not be discreet about the fact that your completely turned around. I know there are two other American girls with blonde hair somewhere on this campus working at a different college, but I certainly haven't seen them. Anyway, I asked a girl who was apparently on her way to the library and she said she was an English major. "We could be friends maybe?" "Ok!" Well, that was easy enough. Eventually I found my apartment and she stayed with me till I did.

We had a meeting early .. well "early".. this morning to get our schedules. I'm teaching two classes- pronounciation and American and British history. But pronounciation is all freshmen- all of whom are at military training until the first week in October. So that means for the first week I only have this history class- which apparently is really boring and teachers have trouble making it seem interesting. At least I have time to get over jet lag and adjust a little. Myles (a seasoned teacher here) is going grocery shopping with me tomorrow. And also to get a map of this town so I know where the hell I'm going. I got an extra bed sheet, some crackers, two rolls of toilet paper, some yogurt, and two small towels for the equivalent of about $11.

Its weird to have to buy all my potable water. Its very humid here, and I feel like I'm always in a light sweat. The air is much better here than Shanghai. It was definitely noticible from the moment I stepped off the plane. Makes your throat feel scratchy. The flight was delayed an hour coming out of Tokyo so my greeter, Zhu, was waiting a long time. He took me around some of town today to shop and see campus. The town is surrounded by mountains and there is a tower in the mountains you can see just outside the gate to old campus. Zhu didn't know the exact date, but said the tower was at least 800 years old. I will check it out someday- hopefully soon. I live on old campus and its a 5 minute bus ride to new campus where I teach. Its 1 yuan to get there (~$.15). Its- definitely interesting being the token blonde-haired blue-eyed girl. Well, that I've met so far. Well, there are a lot of interesting things. Like how you depend on pictures to indicate what different products are but the yogurt has a beautiful woman wearing a sparkly earring. I must be so annoying to shop with, I just constantly ask what everything is.

I wanted to get an adapter so I could plug in my laptop and after stopping in a computer store and waiting for the owner of the store to come out and Zhu and him having an extended conversation in Chinese I found out that my cord actually fits into Chinese outlets. How convienient.

Alright, now just waiting long enough for it to be an appropriate time to call home. Oh, and I brought some Dove chocolate over to help me buy friends with and what do you think the first thing is I get offered after I get off the plane? A small Dove chocolate candy.

startin' a blog, eh?

This last week has been non-stop wrapping up loose ends and taking in all that is Sauk County. Last night my mom and I went down to my cousin's barn, checked out his milking parlor and dipped some cow teats. Definitely had been awhile since I was really.. in a barn. Lots of motorcycling, typhoid vaccine pill taking. The combination of both is making me very tired. Today I'm going to begin packing, tomorrow go to Cave of the Mounds (now that I'm a cave expert) and that's pretty much it.

Keep checking for updates- I'll be posting soon!