Mission Accomplished

My main goal yesterday was to register for classes and, thankfully, I can say "mission accomplished!" It was an all day event where I kept hearing, "do this then come back..." I have my schedule and will go to class 4 hours a day. I am still a little confusted about my next step, but I think it is just buying books on September 2nd and a welcoming ceremony on September 8th. (There is also still the small issue of visas, but I am confident that won't be a problem).

While I was waiting in line to register, I noticed a white couple wearing Michigan t-shirts. Since (I'm learning) Americans are the only ones that bother lining up, we quickly got pushed to the end of the group and had plenty of time to chat. It turns out that they are here on scholarship and for the same reason we are. Their housing is messed up at the moment so they are going to be staying with us for a few days while they find a place to live. We are excited to help westerners who have just arrived in China because, let's face it, if we don't help each other we are all in trouble! Hosting people is something Logan and I enjoy doing and one of the major reasons we got the bigger apartment. I want to also note that we are also having a sleepover for 3 Chinese girls this Saturday so it will officially be a full house!

A Variety of Flavors

I thought you all might like to know what varieties of chips Lays and Pringles offer you if you decide to visit China...

Breezy Blueberry
Cucumber
Italian Red Meat
Lemon Tea
Lime
Mexican Tomato Chicken
Cheese Lobster
Finger Licking Braised Pork
Numb & Spicy Hot Pot
Spicy Seafood
Hot & Sour Fish Soup
Black Pepper Ribeye
Seaweed

I'm sure this list is not exhaustive, but these were some of the ones I noticed on my shopping run this morning!

Life without a car in China

Let me go ahead and say that we knew what we were getting into when we signed up to come to China, but it still surprises me how crazy just one day can be. When we first arrived in China we were staying with our mentor about 45 minutes from the coffeee shop which required us to take 2 buses to get to "work." One particular morning we left with David and were on the first bus when it started to have a strange smell and we saw lots of smoke coming from the bus. All of the Chinese people started screaming and ran toward the front, we all got off the bus in an orderly fashion (yeah, right...), it was mass chaos. After about a minute of standing outside the bus everybody just got back on and drove off...we took a taxi the rest of the way. That was fine, no big deal. Later that night Lyla was getting cranky so Logan, Lyla, and I decided to go home on our own. We walked the 1/4 of a mile to the bus stop and ended up waiting about 30 minutes for our bus to come. We got on as usual but only drove about 8 miles before we hit stop and go traffic. After 45 minutes of this, the bus driver just turned off the lights and the engine and told everybody to get off and walk. We still had a long way to go before reaching home because we hadn't even reached our 2nd bus yet. We got out and walked a while and realized that the problem was major flooding. We decided to get a taxi to take us home because we weren't sure the next bus would be running even if we did want to walk that far. We got in the taxi and realized that he couldn't go anywhere either so after 15 minutes of paying a taxi driving to go nowhere, we decided to get out and walk...again. We walked quite a ways and were overjoyed to receive a phone call from David that he had found a back way and was coming to get us in a taxi. He left the coffee shop nearly 2 hours after us. When it was all said and done, our 45 minute trip took over 3 hours! That, my friends, is public transportation in China.