Hello every one!

It has officially been one week since I first stepped foot on this land and I can say that so much has happened already that I will not be able to tell you guys everything... but I will try. Let’s start from the beginning...

    I shall begin with the plane ride. So as most of you know I was exceptionally nervous to fly over seas for the first time all by my lonesome. I was even more nervous because of my connection in Chicago’s O’Hara airport. However, the flight was actually quite nice. Now you wouldn’t think a total of 20 hours travelling time would be a good experience but I found it went rather smoothly, not to mention I made a new friend along the way. He was from Mexico, currently living in Chicago and doing business in Shanghai. A very experienced traveler, he was more than happy to help me, step by step, the whole way through.  Before I move on I would just like to note that while flying over Chicago I noticed the strangest thing; apparently the concept of an in-ground pool is a foreign thing because everyone, and I mean EVERY one had an above ground circular pools... something  to think about perhaps?

   I finally arrived at Pudong International, picked up by a former queens student named Alex, whisked into a cab and was finally on my way to the residence. A little thing I should point out here is that the Chinese have a different notion of safety then we do here in Canada... aka No seat belts! I probably looked for about 5 min before I realised there just wasn’t any in the cab. Also I wasn’t even travelling for 10 min when we almost got into an accident on the high way... one can only imagine the anxiety I was feeling at that moment.

   Once we arrived at the residence Alex helped me register and then I was on my own in this brave new world.

   Woke up every hour, on the hour to the sounds of honking cars, bicycle alarms and construction! Probably the best night of my life...

When I finally woke up at a more reasonable time (6am) I decided I would get up and get ready for the day. The day just so happened to become the longest day I have ever endured! Not to mention it was school registration and I so conveniently forgot most of my registration forms at home in good old Oakville! Luckily I wasn’t the only one out of our little group of 14 so we spent the entire morning and a good chuck of the afternoon acquiring photos and filling out forms. Then it was straight off to Orientation. Not only were we late (big faux pa here, one does NOT want to be late!) but we got caught in the biggest rainstorm and walked into the frigidly cold class room soaked to the bone, ready to meet our new professors, excellent!

I think this is where the Jetlag finally kicked in because I don’t seem to remember a single thing that happened.

     After the orientation we all went out for a traditional Chinese dinner with our new Chinese classmates and professors. The wonderful thing about this dinner was the variety.  Although because none of us realised that the restaurant was about to bring us a 6 course meal, everyone started filling up on what was just the appetizers. Courses were displayed very elegantly on what we in the west like to refer to as a Lazy Suzan/ a surprisingly efficient way to share food with friends.  It was a very nice welcoming and already I am beginning to feel more and more at home each day.