I made it! After a grueling 13.5 hour flight we finally arrived in Beijing yesterday around 7 p.m. . Luckily Scott Justin and myself were all seated together in an exit row which gave us extra leg room. After landing the three of us made it to our hostel in Beijing for the night and actually had to go back to the airport this morning to pick up the rest of our luggage and meet up with other members of the program. From there we headed to the U.S. cultural center to meet with several people who deal with English teachers here in country. From there we left Beijing for Shizjhuang, "the Cleveland of China" just a few hours outside the city for training. We've got through Monday here and then off to my new home Chongqing.
Even though we only got really one full day in Beijing (headed back there in a few weeks) I still got a bit of a feel for the city. Smog here is pretty ridiculous I saw the sun once since arrival and that was at a highway rest stop between Beijing and Shizjhuang. Anytime in-city so far has pretty much looked like we had constant light fog, pretty ridiculous. I've also gotten some pretty shameless stares since arrival. Almost everywhere we go we seem to be quite the popular attraction. Still, everyone we've met so far has been pretty friendly and no big issues. I did unfortunately bust my phone so if I haven't responded to anything from you I apologize, should have a new one in a few hours.
Schedule for this week is pretty much taken up by Chinese language classes, more training for teaching, and homestays with Chinese families. This whole week should be a good experience, but I'm getting a little anxious to head to Chongqing to get settled in. I found out that our apartments in Chongqing should be located in the center of the city of 30 million. Also I learned a little bit more about my classes, I will teach 3 college level english classes at Sichuan International Studies University and one English class to a local middle school. The combination of these should be very interesting and I'm excited to get started.
Finally I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who sent their best, came and visited, or in other ways reached out to me in the last few weeks. It is difficult to describe how lucky I feel to have friends and family like all of you. Luckily I should be far more reachable here than I ever was in Jordan and look forward to keeping in touch with all of you over the next year. I will post some pictures alongside this post in about 24 hours I need to get my phone fixed or replaced before I try to save some pictures from it. Also if you have recommendations for travel destinations feel free to send me an email with any ideas as I plan on spending quite a bit of time traveling this year.
Wishing all of you the best,
Adam
Even though we only got really one full day in Beijing (headed back there in a few weeks) I still got a bit of a feel for the city. Smog here is pretty ridiculous I saw the sun once since arrival and that was at a highway rest stop between Beijing and Shizjhuang. Anytime in-city so far has pretty much looked like we had constant light fog, pretty ridiculous. I've also gotten some pretty shameless stares since arrival. Almost everywhere we go we seem to be quite the popular attraction. Still, everyone we've met so far has been pretty friendly and no big issues. I did unfortunately bust my phone so if I haven't responded to anything from you I apologize, should have a new one in a few hours.
Schedule for this week is pretty much taken up by Chinese language classes, more training for teaching, and homestays with Chinese families. This whole week should be a good experience, but I'm getting a little anxious to head to Chongqing to get settled in. I found out that our apartments in Chongqing should be located in the center of the city of 30 million. Also I learned a little bit more about my classes, I will teach 3 college level english classes at Sichuan International Studies University and one English class to a local middle school. The combination of these should be very interesting and I'm excited to get started.
Finally I want to extend a big thank you to everyone who sent their best, came and visited, or in other ways reached out to me in the last few weeks. It is difficult to describe how lucky I feel to have friends and family like all of you. Luckily I should be far more reachable here than I ever was in Jordan and look forward to keeping in touch with all of you over the next year. I will post some pictures alongside this post in about 24 hours I need to get my phone fixed or replaced before I try to save some pictures from it. Also if you have recommendations for travel destinations feel free to send me an email with any ideas as I plan on spending quite a bit of time traveling this year.
Wishing all of you the best,
Adam