First of all, I would like to apologize for not blogging since I arrived here. The internet connection at our dorm is really spotty. Most people have the internet, but unfortunately I cannot connect to the internet in my room. Fortunately, we found wifi-internet at a local cafe on campus.
I am going to start with the flight. From Huntsville to Chicago took approximately 1.5 hours. I was real surprised at how speedy we got to Chicago. We spent most of the day in the city. Chicago is a very nice city. We saw many new and exciting things. The landscape is one that we are not accustomed to in Alabama. The subway system is definitely a neat experience, as we took it from the airport to downtown. After eating at a Chicago pizzeria, we explored more of the city. We eventually made our way back to the airport to wait for our 13 hour flight to Beijing.
We arrived in Beijing International Airport around midnight on Tuesday morning. The airport is real nice. It was very fancy, and very up to date. It took about an hour to get through all the necessary precautions and checkpoints before we were finally welcomed by some Chinese students holding up and waving a UNA Lion flag. It was very nice to see the familiar Lion logo knowing we were 7000 miles away. We then had to take a 2.5 hour bus ride south to Tianjin, which is where we are staying. We got there around 3:30 am, and checked into our dorm rooms. Finally around 5:00 am, it was time to sleep, but only for a few hours as we had to meet at 10:30 with the whole group.
The first day in Tianjin was one that was very long. It seemed like the first day here in China was the longest day of my life. The first day was generally used to get accustomed to the city and explore what exactly Tianjin had to offer. We found many things in the city that is definitely not happening in the United States. First, the traffic. The traffic here is absolutely terrifying. Most of the time, no one follows the traffic signals, so getting across the street can be very tricky. You essentially have to dodge the cars as they are heading straight towards you. Later on that day, we made our way to Culture street, where we saw many different vendors trying to sell us things as we walked by. They were very friendly and helpful. Although I decided not to purchase anything on the first day, some of the other students did. That night, we had a banquet to welcome us to the University. After the banquet, the rest of the night was free. I decided to stay in for the night in order to get caught up on sleep. At the time, I was running on about 7 hours of sleep for 3 days.
Day two was very eventful as well. It was our first day of classes. We found out exactly what the course details were, and how to be successful in China. Later on in the afternoon, we had Taiji lessons. Taiji is very difficult! The instructor really got a kick out of teaching the America students how to do a Chinese form of art. That night, I decided to adventure out onto the city with some of the other students. We found a local bar that had American music, food, and culture. We stayed there about two hours, having a great time with some familiar culture.
Today we had a lesson in calligraphy. It was done by a professor on the Tianjin’s campus. He was very helpful and knowledgeable in helping us students understand what exactly was going on. The rest of the night is free. Some of us students are going to dinner on our own tonight. This should be an adventure. Tomorrow morning at 6:00, we are heading to Qufu and Mount Tai. I am definitely looking forward to that!
Thank you for this commentary. It is so good to follow your trip this way. Please continue to keep us posted.
Posted by Donna Thigpen | May 19, 2012, 1:11 pm