We arrived in Beijing at 6PM local time on Friday, February 15th. This meant that our bodies thought it was 3AM Mountain Standard Time. Add to this that our flight lasted roughly 13 hours and it ended up being one exhausting day. Nevertheless, as we got off the plan we were eager to find our host coordinator from our school--Beijing International Studies University. Her name is Zhou Jian Ping. She was waiting at the gate with another hundred some odd people but holding a sign that read, "Adan De La Paz, Maria De La Paz, BISU." We would not be lost on our first night in Beijing.Soon after, we left the Peking International Airport. Jian Ping introduced us to "Mr. Chang," our driver. We rode in a early 2000s model blue Chevy van. As we took to the streets it was easy to fear for your life. In a 40 minute ride from the airport to our school we made amazingly only two stops at lights. Now, we actually went through half a dozen other lights but it appeared that Mr. Chang did not notice that they were RED LIGHTS. It seems customary for drivers to use the motto, "It's everyone for his or herself." We also found out very quickly that car horns take on a whole new language here for motorists. It makes sense considering that everywhere you look there are bicycles and motorcycles crowding the streets.
Finally we arrived at what is called the "North Gate." It is the back entrance to the school. Since it was night time we did not get a good view of much. Before we knew it we made it to the "Foreign Experts Apartments." Inside we checked in at the front desk with the help of Jian Ping because the attendants only spoke Chinese. Then she handed us our class schedules for Monday, the first day of the new semester. At about this time we also met Sandy, an instructor from Texas, and later Scott, an instructor from Washington state. Shortly after we said our goodbyes with Jian Ping and made our way to our apartment. Once inside, we were so exhausted that we only half-awakenly noticed a neat and quaint apartment with tile floors, low flowing water, and below average flush strength for the toilets. As we stumbled to bed we couldn't help but think of our first taste of China as being strikingly similar to living in Mexico.
