Zai Beijing

I'm here. The flight to Vancouver was good. It was really hard to stay up the whole time because all I wanted to do was sleep. Then, I had 3 hours to do nothing at Vancouver International. I'm glad that the airport had free internet, or I would have died. Here's a story that will make people laugh. Right before I get on my 12 hour flight to PEK, I decided to buy some snacks. The nice little Canadian Asian asked me where I was going and I told her Beijing. Then she asked if I was going home...and I laughed. Not exactly lady. First, I'm American, not Chinese. Second, I can't believe she asked me that. When I boarded my flight, I sat next to a Chinese lady who had just immigrated to Vancouver. She started speaking Chinese to me. She called me a "green something" that meant I was new to China. Then she gave me her phone number and told me to call her and she'll take me and Devon and Jimmy out to "pub." Dancing and fun. After talking for a bit and practicing my Chinese, I passed out. I woke up, surprisingly, with 4 hours left of the flight. I watched a movie, read, and that was pretty much it. It wasn't bad at all. I got to the airport, which was clean, spacious, and brand new. I looked out the window...SMOG. It's really as bad as the pictures portray. I got my bags and met up with CC Interntional. Devon had arrived right before me and she was there too. I hadn't been out of customs for more than 5 minutes when I get approached from a CBS person to do an interview about the VISA process. So if you saw me on the evening news tonight...haha, what can I say?

We left the airport by subway, which puts NYC Subway system to shame. Here the subways are clean, electronic, quiet, and fast. Everything is brand new. We got to our apartment. I have pictures. It's really cool. I'm on the 24th floor. Most of my roommates haven't arrived yet. I ate last night a quick meal. It was really delicious. Had eggroll things and dumplings. Not bad.

Today, I plan on getting a Chinese cell phone, walking around and exploring the neighboorhood. Jimmy comes in today too, so we'll help get him settled in. Tonight, we're going out.