These Items will Choke the Toilet

The first glimpse of Hong Kong

The sign for my flight leaving SFO.

I'm officially in Kunming!

My teacher picked me up from the airport yesterday.  She looks like she's about 14 years old, but she told me she's in grad school for teaching, so she must be quite a bit older in reality.  First thing we did was go to the bank together and change money.  She pointed out various spots we passed by in the town and taught me the Chinese words for them.


Then we went to the school and they showed me around.  There are a whole lot of classrooms, a dining area, a lounge, laundry services...etc.  We have to take our shoes off before we walk into the classroom area.  Good thing I'm so used to a shoe-less house.

I was feeling really negative about everything yesterday when I first arrived, probably mostly because I was SOOO tired and was trying to stay up as late as possible to adjust to the time change.  I also just felt very alone because I realized how hard it's going to be to get myself around anywhere considering the language barrier.  I still have no idea how I'm going to negotiate with taxi drivers, or do so many other day-to-day activities that I take for granted in the states.  I also hadn't met any of the other students yet.

At 6pm I decided to stop feeling bad for myself and go eat dinner with the other students even though I hadn't slept in over 24 hours. I am so glad I did!  I met some really nice people, many of whom are beginning Chinese speakers just like me.  They are from all over the world, but most speak english it seems, which is a welcome bonus at this point considering my immediate feeling of isolation before meeting them yesterday.  


I met a girl around my age from Germany and one from Spain, who spoke very highly of the Keats program, and also told me about all the fun classes they offer at the gym nearby.  They were all headed to Bikram Yoga (hott!) after dinner, and then to the massage parlor near the school.  Hmm sounds prime.  They invited me but I declined because I could barely keep my eyes open at that point as it was.  I also met a guy from Boston named Harvey, who helped me figure out my plug-conversion woes.  He was really nice and said he was leaving next week and could give me his US plug converter.  Sweet.

I kept myself awake until 9pm Kunming Time, but woke up at around 2:45am today even so.

All the rumors I heard about the food here are right!  It's awesome!  So excited for that.  The school only serves on weekdays, but my teacher showed me a few restaurants nearby.  She said you can typically get a reasonably sized lunch for 10RMB (That's equivalent a little less than $1.50!)


After getting on the internet, I promptly found out that all my favorite sites are inaccessible in China due to the infamous "Great Firewall of China."  That includes facebook, youtube, and this site (blogspot).  Heh, so much for my writing a blog...


After trying and failing to get around it by using the Stanford proxy, I spent a few hours researching how I could bypass the restrictions here.  I finally ended up buying a VPN from a site that advertised a 30-day refund guarantee.  Perfect!  :-) 



Classes start today. I'll be taking them one-on-one with my teacher.  I chose the later time slot (1:30pm-5:30), which isn't ideal for hanging around the town but I figured I'd cut myself a break for the first few days until I adjust to the time change, and then maybe switch to the 8:30am-12:30 time so I have the rest of the day to chill.

Oh, almost forgot: the fun-with-chinese-to-English-signs started as soon as I got on the plane.  The cover on the toilet read:  "please do not dispose of these items as it will choke the toilet."  :-)   I took a picture, of course, but it's on my cell phone so I'll have to update this post once I get back to America.

No complaints on my room.  It's cute, furnished, and is probably twice the size of the room I'll be living in at Stanford next year.

This is on one wall of my room.  They have the pinyin of each character on the card and the English translation as well...is this the passive way to learn Chinese?  Of course, they couldn't have found a better person to give the room with over 100 post-its on the wall :-)

Everyone gets their own private bathroom.  It's nice but super small.  See that spot in between the toilet and the wall?  Yeah, it's not big enough to fit your legs while seated.  Must learn how to pee sideways.