Arrival

Yesterday was a very long day, although I'm still not exactly sure just how long is was. I woke up at 3:45am PST on August 22, and I landed in Beijing at 3:45pm Beijing time on August 23. I don't think it ever got dark when we were on the plane, and it was only (!) a 12 hour flight. When I went to bed, my phone said it was 4am, but I'm still not sure what happened to all the other hours in between. I tried to do the math, and I don't think I was awake for quite 24 hours, but who knows.
 
It is now 12:45 in the daytime. For those of you on the east coast, just add (or is it subtract?) 12 hours from whatever time it is there. I am officially on the other half of the globe. It's a 15 hour difference if you're on the west coast, and something in the middle if you are anywhere in between. 
 
My flight was uneventful and the process at the airport was very straight forward. I stood in a lot of lines, but that was about the extent of it. I arrived around the same time as one of the new math teachers, so she and I have become best friends. 
 
The cell phone situation is a disaster. I managed to make some phone calls yesterday (at $2.75/minute), but today it doesn't seem to be working so much. I knew I'd need a Chinese phone, and it is becoming something of a priority for me. Maybe one day I'll have a working phone. No one seems to separate their numbers around here -- it's going to be interesting trying to memorize them.
 
I have a two-bedroom apartment across a rather busy street from the school. They are newly renovated, and things mostly work. The AC works like a champ, although I need an extension cord to plug in the refrigerator. The plugs are all three pin, so nothing I have can be plugged in. I need a visit to the Chinese equivalent of Radio Shack for some adapters. They set us up with stuff from Ikea, and my couch is something else. It is fuchsia. Bright fuchsia. Those of you who love pink should be very, very jealous. (Miriam, think of your new fingernail polish.)
 
We had a wonderful dinner last night with lots and lots of food. The Kung Pao Chicken was way better than anything you get in the states. I also had a great eggplant and soybean dish. Yummy.
 
Everyone is lovely (can you hear the British slang already creeping into my voice?). 
 
Off to grab some lunch before heading off to get our residency permits.

If You're Going to San Francisco...

Welcome to the blog portion of my blog. This was first shared as an email. It has been edited for posterity, but it's not substantially different. Feel free to skip it if you read it already.

I arrived at the Portland airport at 4:30 am (Suzie is a rock star for driving me!) to long lines and frantic passengers. I was a bit worried about the weight of my luggage, made no less light by the last minute addition of two rather hefty tomes about Chinese characters and language as studied through menus and Chinese cooking. They were too good to leave behind, however. (Thanks Tanya!) I patiently waited in line while all the other passengers looked at me askance because of my two giant suitcases, box, small carry-on suitcase, and messenger bag. I'm going for twI let it all wash over me like someone else's bad dream.
 
Carry-on screening was easy and the line was super short. yay! I was at my gate with an hour to spare, rearranged my messenger bag (which really is over-stuffed, but whatever) and grabbed a book. (It's John Irving's newest and in the first two chapters he has already set the scene in New Hampshire and hauled out a bear -- very John Irvingesque.) 
 
I sat next to the burly dude on the tiny commuter to San Francisco. Oh well. I used my new travel pillow and took a nap. I have high hopes for more napping on the way to Beijing. 
 
We arrived early and I'm sitting in a nearly empty gate. In a few moments, I'll go track down some doubly-over-priced food (once for being in an airport and again for being in San Francisco) before camping out for the two and half more hours before the next stage.
 
I have no idea what sort of Internet access I will have when I arrive in China. I do know that phone calls will be ridiculously expensive, so please DO NOT call me or text me unless the world is ending (in which case, I probably already know and it's still a wasted effort). I will write again as soon as I am able. 
 
Oh, and my delightful summer cold is developing a nice cough. I'll be super-fun to sit next to. :-D
 
Thanks for all your well wishes. Stay tuned for more details.