Heading Out

Well, after nearly a month in the nation’s capital, I am headed out to my home city. I’m ready. Being in Beijing has been interesting. For one thing, it’s a place you hear about all your life but never expect to end up in. I’ve seen some incredibly famous places like the Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven. Beijing is in a time of significant growth and improvement for the Olympics. Many of the older buildings and generations-old villages that I’ve seen won’t be here in a few years.
I have also gotten to hang out with a bunch of other incredible teachers. I am glad to think that I will have friends all over China and pretty much wherever I want to visit, I will have a place to stay. I have been bonding more with Christina, the other single (Asbury grad) on my team. We have already developed a healthy amount of sarcasm in our relationship. I’ve also met the final portion of my team, Andy and Katrina and Logan, the team baby. Logan is 3 months old but he is so big he seems older! I haven’t spent very much time with them since they just got in the other day, but I’m looking forward to getting to know them better. And I already forget that Matt, Corrine, and I haven’t been friends for years. It’s been kind of sad to say goodbye to all the people I’ve gotten to know, but I’m so glad to have my teammates with me.
Now I am ready to get to my city, unpack my suitcases, and set up house. Speaking of setting up house, yesterday I had an “out of China” sort of experience when I went to the Beijing IKEA. IKEA is a huge, inexpensive, amazingly cool furniture/home decorating store. There are some in the US (a new one in Atlanta), and I was pleasantly surprised to find there are also several in China. I found some great stuff like curtains and candles to make my apartment look homey. I am particularly excited about this lamp shade that I got (for like $5 US), and I spent most of yesterday evening wandering around showing it off to everyone I knew. I got some weird looks carrying it back on the bus yesterday, and I’m sure I’ll get even more as I carry it around the train station.
In just a few hours I will be heading out of here with the rest of my team on an overnight train to Yangzhou. I am kind of excited about it, since it will be my first China train experience, and I am fascinated by trains. I could say something more but my mental facilities are starting to shut down and I really need to take a nap before we head out. J Next time - from Yangzhou!