It's been a week already!

At this point I have been in Beijing (and China) for about one week. I wasn't planning on posting tonight, for various reasons, but I realized that not doing so would mean failing my one-post-a-week goal. So, here it is.

The past week has been absolutely amazing, and absolutely exhausting. I've spent so much time going places and experiencing things. I'm ready for a break. Instead, I have the start of classes. Yay! I'm actually really excited for this. I've not had classes for just long enough that it'll be kind of strange, but then again, everything here is kind of strange.

Like I said, I'm exhausted, so you'll have to forgive me for making this short. I promise that I'll do an actual, thorough post later this week.

Getting here: Snow really messed things up for me and I arrived a day and a half late. I didn't miss anything crucial, but it was kind of a pain. Details later.

Dorm room: It's so much nicer than I expected it to be. The rooms are bigger than the singles at Michigan, and the closet's decent-sized. The bed is pretty firm but I don't mind. Also, it isn't as cold as I expected it to be. The hallway is cold, but the rooms themselves are fine. The only thing that really bothers me is how dry the air is. No matter how often I put on hand lotion, my hands still feel dry.

People: They're pretty awesome. Everyone is really friendly and we're all having a great time. There are only about 30 people in my program so we're all getting to know each other pretty well.

Food: Amazing! Seriously guys, the Chinese have this down much better than we do. I love the eating style where a few things are ordered and everyone shares. It's really fun and involved.

Beijing: It's a really cool city and I'm loving the public transportation. Right now things are still pretty quiet because of the Chinese New Year. I'm looking forward to people coming back. It kind of feels like the city is sleeping.

Chinese New Year: Best holiday ever! Those of us living in the dorms got the option of spending the eve of 春节(Chunjie) with a Chinese family, which I of course did. It was one of my favorite things so far.

I'll post pictures of everything once I have internet up in my room, which will hopefully be tomorrow or the next day.

Please post a comment or email me if you can, I'd love to hear from you all! I'll put my mailing address up next post.