NI HAO! 你好

Leaving for China from OKC!  Pistol Pete is appropriately in the background!

Hello from China!  I'm writing to you from the Timmy Hotel (Who's Timmy?) in my new city of  Guangzhou, China...I'm beyond exhausted and feeling the jetlag so if this post makes no sense or is filled with typos, you'll just have to forgive me!

I arrived in China two days ago after a 13 hour flight from Chicago to Beijing and across...get this!...the NORTH POLE!...I was previously unaware that the North Pole is on the way to China but apparently its the route that my pilot chose to take.  Also, the in flight wi-fi does not work when you are crossing the North Pole and the outside air temp is only about -90 degrees Fahrenheit.  Only.

Once on the ground in Beijing, my new teacher friends (two other new EF teachers were also on the flight out of Chicago) and I hurried..as much as you can while standing in a line..through immigration and customs in an effort to make our connection to Guangzhou. We didn't make it.  They had to de-ice the plane in Chicago and we left an hour late and our connection time in Beijing was cut short.  So, we, with our 500 pounds of combined luggage, made our way to the Air China counter to get rebooked on the next flight out to Guangzhou and here is where I really wanted to speak my second language - Spanish - to get everything sorted out.  But it wouldn't help me here so instead I smiled and nodded a lot and talked slowly and with a lot of gestures like that would help the poor guy trying to help me.  In the end, he handed us a piece of paper with hand-written flight information for the next morning's flight...a hand-written ticket number on a piece of paper in the U.S. probably wouldn't count for much but it seemed to work fine here!  Next, it was on to the United counter (our original flight was on United) to try and score a hotel for the night..and, surprisingly, I didn't have to beg!  The lady, who thankfully spoke English, was happy to book each of us a hotel room, with a free shuttle to and from the hotel, and a meal voucher.  United Airlines in the U.S. could take notes from this lady's superb customer service.  If you've heard any of my horror stories when it comes to dealing with United, then this whole piece on United will make sense to you...anyways moving on...

We caught our flight the next morning at 9:00 and were finally on the last leg of our journey to Guangzhou.  We ended up not being the only ones that were late to arrive and we had the rest of the day free since we had missed the pick up time for the scheduled activities.  (Here are some video clips I have taken to share with my family so if you hear me say I love you...these weren't just intended for my blog!)

There was supposed to be another video of my temporary hotel room for a couple weeks but evidently it was too big to load...so here is one from my windowsill looking out at my new city!

Not to worry...we got caught up with everything today.  The morning started with a review of our teaching contracts (gotta double check that salary amount $$$$$) and contract signing, before heading to the bank to open our accounts (where all that $$$$$ is going to go...I guess more accurately it would be this ¥¥¥¥¥).  Next, was a lot more of paper signing which I won't bore you with and then lunch at a traditional restaurant which probably deserves a whole post all to itself because let's face it the food here is interesting...so more on that later but for now here is picture..

Then came a meeting with real estate agents to set up an appointment for apartment hunting (starting tomorrow!) and finally a meeting with our bosses and a tour of our schools!  (There are 8 different EF lanuage schools here in Guangzhou so we aren't all teaching at the same one). 

Aside from all that!  Here are some first impressions and things I have noticed from my first 48 hours in China...

-The airport in Beijing has got to be the biggest airport in the world.  Or maybe it's just because I had to push a ridiculous amount of luggage around it and couldn't hardly communicate that it felt that way...
-You can buy beer from a vending machine!  Which is kind of fun...and it's cheap... about 1 U.S. dollar!
-About this smog situation...exactly how hazardous is this air to my health?!  And when will I see some sunshine?
-On the other hand, all this smog kinda makes the cities in China look like I always imagined.
-Squat Pot. (See photo!) Haven't tackled one of these just yet but there will come a day...

-Guangzhou, so far, doesn't seem any more crowded than some of the other cities I have visited before.  So that's a plus.  But honestly, I like the people and the energy and the hustle and bustle.
-I need some serious chopstick practice.
-And some Mandarin or Cantonese lessons because this language barrier thing and me don't go well together.  I like to talk to people!
-There is a GAP in one of the malls here...seriously, GAP? It doesn't get much more American than that.  And the name of the mall is "Grandview Mall," no Chinese characters required.
-Oh and they really do put English phrases on t-shirts that really shouldn't be there...For example...

I'll be sure to steer clear of anyone wearing this shirt...
-Everyone has been friendly so far! :)
-I like my school and fellow teachers and my first teacher's meeting is next Thursday!

More to come when I've recovered from my jetlag...I realllyyyy need sleep right now...