Ni Hao from Beijing!

你好 From Beijing!

After a long 12 hour flight we finally landed in Beijing! However, I quickly learned that nothing in China ever happens as quickly as you want it to. The customs line only took about 25 minutes, but then I had to wait about an hour for my bags to finally come around on the carousel before I could meet up with my group. But really, I can’t complain. I only had to take one flight and it was on time. There were thunderstorms that created major delays for some people and I heard our program coordinators have to go pick up more students later tonight.

I guess it really didn’t hit me until I got off the plane in the Beijing airport how much I “wasn’t in Kansas anymore.” I just had this incredible feeling of being utterly alone in these crowds of people, with not a single person familiar to me. It was simultaneously terrifying and thrilling.

The next thing that hit me was the humidity. It’s so humid here that I feel like I’m swimming through the air. I knew it was going to be hot, but I guess I’d just forgotten what this kind of humidity is like.

It started pouring on the bus ride from the airport and I took some pictures of the city in the rain. I still can’t believe I’m going to be living and exploring a city of 20 Million people!

Everyone in my program has been super nice so far and I’m already making some friends. We went out to dinner as a group at a local restaurant and they brought us twice the amount of food we could have consumed. They just kept bringing more and more food! 

I’m super jet-lagged and am off to bed. I promise tomorrow I will give more details. So I’ll just leave you all with the final picture of the view from my room. Beijing is so pretty at night J