I have arrived!

The air is not as polluted as I imagined. I'm reminded of Hong Kong and Taiwan because those are the only Asian urban centres that I've been in. The air reminds me of Hong Kong but then again, I haven't been outside the university grounds yet (other than the airport which is another story in itself).

Met 2 people my age before I took off from Vancouver. One is an SFU communications grad I recognized and another from Beijing, new graduate from Yale. SFUer is interning at this UN office and LA girl is taking Chinese language program at a nearby university. I ended up sharing a cab with her. The airport was crazy! Once we got in, these hagglers came to woo us to their taxis. One bought me a phone card which I refused, another tried pushing my cart and I also refused. I was so skeptical, but ended up going with this woman who took at to this parking lot. It was so weird. V. agressive. Cab drivers are very scary but they never seem to end up in accidents. (I had forgotten these idiosyncracies from HK and Taiwan.)

My roommate is from Korea. 90% of the residents in my building are from Korea so I know exactly what Jeanette feels like at work everyday. I like is cuz my roommate doesn't really speak English or Chinese and we are both trying to improve on Chinese to communicate with each other. We hang out with two other Korean girls and a Japanese girl who speak hanyu (Mandarin) v. well and that's what we communicate in. I have to say, the local food here is really bad. I had stomach aches after my first meal (dinner) after flying in and I could only eat a third of it. The portions are huge and the price is 4 kuai (Chinese dollar/RMB) for the dish and rice. The conversion is approximately $1CDN to $5.5 RMB. We ended up just eating Korean food yesterday. SOOper good. v. yummy.

Classes start tomorrow. Later today will take placement test. Will visit the city this weekend and also The Great Wall.

Beware the Great Fire Wall of China