ZAO!!! (good morning)

HEY EVERYONE!! Just thought I'd let you all know that I made it to CHINA. It was kinda of a rough start though. Somehow, my flight wasn't reserved, so luckily there was space on the plane for me still--plenty of space actually. Haha, on the way to Beijing, I had an entire row of four seats to myself. I literally stretched out completely and still had tons of extra room. So, first thing I did was pop two tylenol PMs, and I was out like a light for a good 8 hours of the flight. It was pretty much the best plane ride I've ever been on.

Once we landed, we had about 7 hours in the airport to wait for the Iowa group to arrive. Then, we packed our bus up and headed to a restaurant. It was amazing. There are about 20 of us, and we sat at two round tables. The waitresses kept bringing plate after plate after plate of different dishes and set them all on a huge lazy susan in the middle of the table. We all ate tons of food...and all different kinds. My personal favorite was the duck. YUMM! I haven't tried cat, dog, scorpion, or mice yet, but apparently those are all pretty popular in Dongguan (where I'll be teaching) so I'll be sure to at least taste each of those :)

After dinner we headed to our hotel. We all share a room with one other person...and of course me and Natalie are sharing a room :) We went to bed at 8:30 Pm. Ridiculous, I know. I ended up waking up at 1:00 am cuz I was sooo jetlagged, and then couldn't fall asleep again until 4:30 AM. Talk about miserable.

Today we did a ton of sightseeing; the Forbidden City, Summer's Palace, and something like teminal square (not really sure what that's called). We also went to a fresh water pearl place and saw how the were made and everything. And of course, I bought PLENTY of real pearls. It was soooo much fun. Both lunch and dinner today were the exact same as last night. OH, and breakfast, haha....that was pretty much the exact same too. It was continental in our hotel, and considered "American Breakfast." It consisted of rice, peas, eggs, sausage, frenchfries, and a whole lot of other random Chinese things that I didn't eat.

Anyway, the weather here is pretty crazy. It is soo foggy (due to pollution) that you can't even see the sun. Which is probably a good thing because it is already incredibly hot. I was sweaty the second I stepped out of the hotel.

Tonight we went to some acrobatic show. Which was absolutely crazy. Just to give you an idea of how crazy it was.....they managed to get 12 people on a single bike. And they looked good doing it.

Alright, I have to go to bed! I am thirteen hours ahead of Iowa time. ...so it is 10:48 PM here. BUT, fyi, tomorrow I'm going to the GREAT WALL! I can't wait :) Alright, well that's all I've got for now.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY VERY BEST FRIEND!!!! (aka toni ann perisho)


for some reason i cant upload pics, so i'll do that next time i blog :) love you all.