Welcome to Xianyang, China

I made it into China!!! It's still kind of surreal that I am here already.  Everything seems to go incredibly fast, but for my reader's sake I will try to remember the last couple of days.

 
The trip to the airport from the hotel was crazy due to the realization that our training was complete and we were leaving Cambodia.  Although I did love Cambodia, I was definitely ready for a new pace and a more modern environment.  The man who picked me up from the airport also drove me back to the airport which was nice of him, but it was probably because we had to pay for this ride LOL.  We had to pay about $97 for an extra 10 lbs. (he was nice and didn't charge us for 20 lbs) which wasn't too bad and he told us we would have to pay for our bags again once we entered into China, but that it should be cheaper there (I was traveling with 3 other LC graduates who were also traveling to China, two of them were landing in Xi'an with me). 
 
Arriving at Guangzhou airport was like getting stuck in a tornado, and no I'm not talking about the landing.  Not many people speak English and because all of our bags were overweight we were sent to another section, the airport has check in places like A01 or D10 and they also have gate numbers like A01 and D10, so you can understand our confusion as we wondered around for about an hour trying to find out where we had to pay for our bags.  We finally found it (nothing is in alphabetical order in China, nothing!) E21, but then they said we had to pay then come back, so we wandered to E10 and paid for our bags, then went to find security (honestly getting through Customs in China was easier than trying to pay for our bags, side note: they have thermal cameras to see if your sick when you go through Customs, its totally awesome but scary at the same time). 
 
We split up and I went to the security line and that's where I realized it was raining outside and it was raining so hard that it sounded like rain above my head.  It was my turn and all m stuff got scanned and then they told me to open my backpack because I had my Kindle and it was blocking their scanning process, so I took it out and they scanned it through again, which this time they found my scissors (oops) and then they scanned it again, and then they found my exacto-knife (double oops) and they looked at me and asked "What is this for?" I said "Cutting paper, what else?" They let me go without my scissors and exacto-knife (this took about an hour, but they got so tired of me that they didn't find my emergency matches that I forgot I had lol).
 

When arriving in Xi'an/Xianyang Airport it was raining, but it was so cool (temperature) that I just wanted to curl up and sleep (I didn't get much sleep the night before).  I got both my bags and I said goodbye to my friends and met up with a man named Brian, who is an Aston teacher like me.  We chatted in the car as we drove to my apartment.  The apartment is in the city center of Xianyang and surrounded by restaurants and a park. It is on the 4th floor (no elevator, so Brian helped me carry my heavy suitcases, but he was weezing by the time he reached the door lol) with a secure metal door.  The apartment/flat is lovely (my roommate Heyneke had it cleaned thoroughly) and very spacious; we have a huge living room with a nice big aircon and maple colored leather couches, my bedroom is very nice with a big bed and lovely blue curtains.  Our bathroom is decent, it has a western toilet and a shower, but the bathtub isn't working and kind of scares me.  We have a space past our bedrooms where we can hang our laundry to dry (the washer looks like some old alien contraption lol so I'm afraid to use it or touch it yet).  Our dining room is also nice, with a decent sized fridge and big freezer, the kitchen looks out over the town and forms a lovely view, but a lot of the stuff looks foreign to us so we haven't used it just yet.

At the airport I exchanged some USD to RMB ($1 USD = $6-$8 RMB) so this is what Chinese money looks like.
 
After looking over the apartment I jumped back in the car and headed to the school (Aston 1 in Xianyang is where I will be teaching it is only a 15 minute walk, but my roommate Heyneke will be working in Aston 2 about 30 minutes away).  I got to meet a lot of CT's (Chinese Teachers) and they love making english names so here are a few examples: Snowy, Serena, Summer, Stella, Sherri, Celina, Uncle U (Super friendly lol), CiCi, Tiffany, and (Crazy) Amber, everyone seemed very nice.  I waited for a bit and I got a tour from Hannah which is Brian's wife.  I like the school it is located on the 6th floor of a shopping center and all the classroom's have names of cities like Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin to name a few.  Then we went to dinner at what everyone calls "Orange House" because the real name is in Chinese so they just renamed it (they do that a lot like lets meet at Justin's place, which was discovered by a man named Justin, it's kind of funny).  We all ordered something and I had to use chopsticks (my skills at chopsticks are improving with every meal).  All the FT's (Foreign Teachers, thats me!) seemed happy to meet me, especially Kelly who does the A+ program at Aston, she gave me a hug.  I was told I was the youngest out of all the FT's here at the moment so I'm the baby (I also don't have a phone yet so I have to follow Heyneke everywhere but he is super nice so he doesn't mind) and I'm also the only one from America, which is odd because the Americans usually rule in numbers lol.  I didn't have to pay for dinner as it was my Welcome to Aston dinner (side note: I tried tofu for the first time and it was alright).

Sunday was very relaxed, although I didn't get much sleep because my pillow is literally made out of sand LOL so I have to buy a new pillow soon.  Me and Heyneke explored the city looking for some place to eat and we found a nice place, but we learned not to sit next to the window as everyone stares at us (side note: Heyneke smokes, but he smokes on the balcony which is uper nice of him to do). We were called in early to get our books and schedules, (which there are a lot of books and I don't even think I got them all or the right ones, so I have to check with the Manager or Brian later) I have 16 classes a week, mostly teaching on Saturday's and Sunday's starting at 8:20am till about 7:30pm and I also teach one class on Friday starting at 5:50pm, but I have Office Hours starting at 2pm and ending at 5pm.  So surprise to me I have Monday-Thursday off.  After we got our books we got an introduction to Smart Boards, which had Chinese symbols (I have used Smart Boards before just in English lol) and we were told every classroom would have these along with a laptop and projector and internet connection (each board is about 10,000RMB so this is an amazing improvement to the school). Afte the training me and Heyneke went to do some promotions for the school, we basically palyed games with children and handed out fliers, since I was new I watched and waved at people who were staring at me (especially the older women who liked to touch me lol).

 

So today, we traveled to Xi'an about 45 minute Taxi ride from our smaller city because that is where I have to get my medical exam done and do our Adton training at.  The medical exams weren't too bad they went very quick (ECG, Blood Test, X-Ray, Blood Pressure, Ultra-Sound, Eye Test, and Height/Weight), about an hour of testing.  Then we traveled to the Aston school in Xi'an where our hotel is located above it.  The hotel isn't very nice, but it will have to do for three days.  I like that it has internet, whereas our apartment internet still isn't working because the guy who installed it forgot to give us the account name and password... sigh! I also got to see one of my fellow LC friends as she was beginning to go shopping, it was nice knowing someone.  Heyneke wanted to get Starbucks and I was hungry so we wandered away from the hotel and found the place.  I got a croissant, which was yummy. 

 

We searched the undergorund mall (has like three levels underground, which is insane!), but we couldn't find anything since the stores were just randomly placed.  We went to the big mall located near the city centerm which is the Bell Tower.  The mall is huge and is still being construccted to make more floors underground, but we managed to find some batteries for my camera that can be recharged (hopefully they work!!!) and a converter for my laptop (I needed a travel sized one that I can take out of the apartment). 

 

Nothing is easy here, but everyone so far has been helpful if not very nice.  The language barrier is difficult, but I'm trying to get better (Tiffany, a CT at my Aston school, said she would help me with my Chinese and that I would help her with her English, so we became friends quickly, she is also my age...

Side Note: China doesn't understand the difference between type 1 diabetes and type 2 so its hard explaining the difference, but Tiffany said her Dad is diabetic so she would ask him where he gets his insulin from and how much it is... YAY!!)