First Day Blog... A Day Late

I am actually posting this nearly 18 hours after I wrote it, but everything after this sentence was stuff I wrote the morning after my first day in China; I couldn't post it because I didn't have internet access until now.

Arrived in China:

So Yesterday, I arrived in China at about 10:30am local time.

Without much of a hitch I met the representative from the school at the airport and exchanged my US cash for some Chinese cash.
The school's rep will assist me with administrative things I need to do here in China. Her name is Tian Jia (also "TJ" she noted). There was a 2 hour car ride from Shanghai back to Huzhou. My body had no idea what time it was supposed to be, I was super tired. When we got to Huzhou it was about 12:30, so they (Tian Jia and the driver, who also works for the school) took me to lunch.

So, I had my first meal in China. We went to a Sichuan restaurant, and we ordered spicy frog and spicy rabbit, the first time I've eaten either of those two animals. Here are the pictures.



FYI: When Chinese people call something spicy, it is SPICY, no pussy-footing around it. This stuff will clear your sinuses something fierece, and even the driver (a Chinese) was sweating while eating it! Also, they don't take all the tiny little bones out of the frogs and rabbits, so you have to eat around it, or separate it in your mouth and spit out the bones... rather annoying.

Now, the dorms where I will be staying are brand new. SO new, in fact, that the hot water heater and shower was not yet completely installed, so the first night I stayed in a hotel. But before going to the hotel, Tian Jia took me to see my place. Here are some pictures. It's actually bigger and nicer than I expected, but then again, it is new.

Nice big balcony.


View from the balcony.



(And yes, the shower is adjacent to the toilet, without a separator.)

All in all, the only complaint I have about it is that is on the 6th floor and there is no elevator. I have a feeling that's going to get old Real fast.

Also, here's a nice shot of downtown Huzhou (not from my apartment).



After seeing my dorm, I went to the hotel to take a shower and nap. Originally I was only going to take a 3 hour nap and then Tian Jia was going to show me around downtown Huzhou a bit, but I ended up not hearing her knock at the door, so it became a 6 hour nap. We did go out around 9:30 saw a few things, but my stomach started aching a bit (I had had about 5 meals in 32 hours, I just needed to "evacuate" a bit). So I went back to my hotel and then went to sleep. Tian Jia is going to come fetch me around 10:30am, but I actually woke up at around 4am, and couldn't get back to sleep, so that's what I'm doing now. :)

Anyhow, I'll learn more about my schedule, my responsibilities, etc in the next couple days. As things are right now, I'm really excited. Almost hard to believe I'm actually here.