Finally in China!

Well, where do I begin? I arrived safely, although exhausted, to China after what felt like an eternity of sitting, waiting, and changing planes. The only problem I had was finding terminal 3 at the Beijing airport. Fortunately, someone working at the airport helped me find the bus I needed to drive me to the terminal. My first impression of Beijing (which was limited to seeing the airport and the area the plane flew over) was not too great. I was not too impressed. The amount of pollution and lack of traditional Chinese edifices was very disappointing. Everything seemed so westernized. The same goes for Chengdu. I was and am very unprepared for this. The weather in Chengdu is very cold and the sun hardly shines here due to fog and pollution. However, my apartment is very nice, except for the fact that I don’t have internet yet (which has now been solved, thank God). I arrived to the apartment complex at about 9:30 p.m. on January 10. I told the guard, in some very broken Chinese and English, that I was supposed to get my keys. He had no idea what I was saying, so he brought me to an apartment where there were English speakers. They tried to help me out, but it seemed like no one knew that foreign exchange students stay in these apartments. Luckily, four other USAC students (which we identified by the fact that they were speaking English) passed by us. We stopped them and told them that I was supposed to go to an apartment here. The students, three guys, Kevin, Magnus, and Bjoernar, (two of whom are Norwegian and the other who is from Texas) and one Norwegian girl (Marit), knew exactly what I was talking about. Apparently, the program director, Wentao, had told Kevin and Marit that I was going to stay in their apartment. The four of them (Magnus, Kevin, Marit, and Bjoernar) took me to the fifth floor of that building and tried to get into the apartment, but realized that we were in the wrong building. Fate or coincidence must have brought them to the building I was in. We went to the right building and I had finally arrived.