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.