First Impressions

  Well, we made it to Beijing!  Our flight actually made it in about 12.5 hours, and my continuous coffee infusion was just running out as we arrived, in preparation for sleep at the hotel despite it being morning in the States.  We passed customs and immigration sans problems, and found the Fogarty scholars who were meeting us.  The one thing I immediately noticed about the area as we left the airport was the smog -- it was so thick that Adam thought there was a white roof over the train track, when in fact it was just a low-lying level of vapor and dirt.  My eyes started stinging immediately as well and stayed that way until I got inside again at the hotel.  I hope eyes can get used to that because otherwise its going to make sightseeing and transportation in Beijing uncomfortable!  Here we are with our luggage just after arrival; the others with me are Adam and Alyson; Adam is the other Fogarty scholar and Alyson is his girlfriend who is teaching English here this year.

 The hotel is very nice, if a bit quirky, as it took me 10 minutes to find the light switch when I was trying to go to bed!  It was hiding behind the nightstand, at about hip-level on the wall...interesting.  Also I have included below the first of a series (I'm sure!) of funny chinese-to-english translated signs - its understandable after a bit of scrutiny, but quite amusing!  Its also completely understandable that conjugations would be hard for Chinese people as from what I understand so far, they don't exist in Mandarin.  Its interesting seeing how other languages manifest themselves when translated into English.  This is the safety sign on the outside of the hotel shower: