Intro Do I know how to do a blog? No. Can I guarantee consistency or that I won't quit? Also no. Will this be relatively free flowing and questionable grammatically and structurally? Yes. Will I have at least this one post? Yes, so it begins.
Travel I've been in China for maybe 2 days now. Flying to Beijing sucks. I'm sorry, 19 hours of travel, horrible turbulence, not sleeping because the timing is all weird. But, I did finish The Martian, so for those in my book club who haven't: no excuses, I read it while wanting to die on a plane, you can read it from Hanover or New York or Madison, WI? Idk where everyone lives these days. At least I had an aisle seat though, and the flight attendant was highly concerned about my food intake so although I don't eat eggs she brought me greek yogurt and fruit which was lovely.
Arriving in Beijing is easy. The airport and customs were a breeze, and my recruiting company The Fewer Things (TFT) happily booked me a hotel for the night and a guide to get me to and from the airport and train station. The guide was Michael, and what a bloke he was. Obsessed with the NBA, but anti-Lebron. (Guess where he chose his English name from.) Knows US states by their respective teams (Memphis Grizzlies will have to do for the Nashville recognition.) Don't worry, Jack Daniels also got him to Tennessee. Having not slept in nearly 24 hours, I was not the most upbeat conversationalist, but not to worry he said my Chinese wasn't very good anyway, so we could just use English. He did help me practice my Chinese though, so for hour 2.5+ hours of uber rides over the 27th and 28th, we pretty easily switched in and out of both languages.
Navigating the train station was easy, and here my ability to read characters did impress Michael so I have that going for me. The train from Beijing to Shijiazhuang was extremely easy. 1hour long (yay bullet trains, if only America believed in infrastructure) air conditioning, wifi, and more. The combination of planes, Ubers (didi's), and train did mean that I learned my first new Chinese word. You see, we were taught 重 (zhong4) to mean "heavy" but here in Beijing and Shijiazhuang they typically use 沉 (chen2), and I certainly needed to keep warning people about the weight of my luggage. (Don't worry though, Michael informed me that 重 works and they understood me. He also called me Shrek when I was able to lift both suitcases on my own...) And, as a member of the 2020 start college class who was given 15solo minutes to move into her dorm room, I may have a slight counter dependency issue moving to new places and abhor help so I tried to do everything alone, much to my guide's chagrin, and to my kind DiDi driver's refusal. Arriving in Shijiazhuang, I was met at the train station by a representative from my school who was lovely and so helpful. She and a driver brought me straight to my new apartment, and she jokingly asked if I understood their conversation throughout the drive. (I understood about 1/2 but also was so sleepy I couldn't say whether or not that was a skill issue, an accent issue, or a sleep deprivation issue.)
Arriving at the school, she brought me to my new apartment for the "Foreign Experts" as I am called. They may revoke that expert title when I try to teach for the first time on Monday though :/ We live in studios on at the top of the school building and they are lovely. I haven't met the other teachers yet, but one pair clearly has a little baby girl with the cutest baby cowgirl boots! My apartment is so nice, and I was given yesterday and today to myself before we have our first meeting tomorrow. (I am hoping that I will be told something about my student's English levels at that meeting bc I'm freaking out a little here!)
But, since that isn't our current main concern, let me regale you all with the exciting tales of moving into a new apartment. (Boring? Maybe. Exciting for me? Yes. Does it count as an adventure when I'm doing it alone in China? I say yes.)
Finding a bath towel Upon arrival, I was given a general location of the nearest Supermarket and given time to myself to rest and prepare. Despite the lovely hotel bath I had the night before, I was desperately hoping for a shower. (After I called my parents and lay around scrolling instagram for a couple hours.) Thanks to TFT's recommendation, I did bring with me my favorite shampoo and body wash, and all I wanted was a shower. BUT, I did not bring my own bath towel --against my mother's repeated insistence-- oops. So, to the nearest mall I went. An easy 15/20minute walk away is a large mall. On the international side I may have picked up a McFlurry, and then wandered for an embarrassingly long amount of time. Their malls are more insane than ours and that's saying something. Inside of it, there's a location I'll call "mom's worst nightmare part. 1" with slides and ziplines and climbing centers. I watched multiple interactions that went: 孩子: 妈妈我想去那里做这打了 妈妈：其他时。快的走别的地方
(Child: Mom I wanna go there and do that. Mom: another time runs away) I sympathized more with the parents who gave in and sat watching their children. But, it honestly looked sick so I can't blame the kids. How did I see this many interactions you may be asking? I went to the mall really only looking for one thing. Well, like any good member of GenZ, I don't ask for help --insert some comment from our parents about the anxious generation at your leisure-- so I did wander this confusing mall for maybe 30minutes hoping to find towels on my own before succumbing and finding the closest shop worker and asking her where to find them. And thus begins my second Chinese lesson of the trip. The word I know for towel is 毛巾 (mao2jin1). And so I asked the kind lady where I could find one, and she gave me directions through the mall. (Thank you doctor Kelley for teaching me both how to ask directions and how to follow them when I was 15, I have a feeling those will be the most important sentences for me going forward. Unfortunately, 毛巾 must mean hand or dish towel, because the kind woman at the store for bedding excitedly brought me over to a stack of them and said I could buy. Cue anxious generation comments once more, because I certainly wasn't going to correct her (and besides I need some for the apartment anyway.) So I bought some and quickly went to another floor to find towels. Trust me, there is everything on every floor of the mall so I was pretty sure I wouldn't need to return. And I was correct. I looked up the word for Bath towel on Pleco, and alas it's 浴巾 (yu4jin1) not 毛巾 so I had a new word and a new plan. BUT this time I found a store that said "home goods" on the front and went in. Upon asking the woman running this store where to find the correct type of towel, I bought a nice blue one, said thank you, and immediately left the mall. Well, immediately as soon as I could find my way to an exit back in the direction of my apartment. I then walked back home, feeling as though I'd conquered all the tasks I needed to. I showered finally and went to bed at 4pm (thank you jet lag) waking up the next day 14 hours later.