Early Wednesday morning I said goodbye to my friends that I have known for just over a week. Who knew that you could come to love so many people in just 12 or so days? It just so happens that when you get to experience something new and awesome with people, it instantly bonds you. Lately, I have struggled when I have had to say goodbye to my friends. I definitely had a couple tears run down my face. I am pretty sure I was the only baby in the group. There is nothing wrong with being a little sensitive, right? That's what I keep telling myself.
We headed off in a van to go to the airport while everyone else got on a train together. I always thought that navigating through airports in the states was a little bit stressful but that is a breeze compared to navigating through the Beijing airport. Yes, they did have signs that were translated into English but we still never really knew if we were in the line we needed to be in. We got really good at the trial and error method. At security I got patted down like I have never been patted down before and the lady did it like five times! I was dying to tell her that really wasn't hiding anything under my clothes but I just let her do her thing. They had to send our backpacks through the security thing about three times before they finally let us go. We finally successfully made it through security and to our gate. We even had some time to spare.
Flying into Guiyang is when I realized how beautiful the city really is. Everything is so green, there are trees everywhere, and there are tons of little hills. We got off of the plane and am 99% sure that we were the only white people in the airport. That made it easy for our headmaster and liaison to spot us. They both were so welcoming and made us feel very comfortable. They took us to our apartments and then gave us a couple hours to get settled in before our liaison, Nicole, took us to dinner.
During those couple hours, Shelby and I walked up our street to see if we could find a little snack to hold us over before dinner. This city is very different from Beijing. We live in a very nice part of town and there are fancy hotels up and down our street. There are a couple little shops and a supermarket that we wandered around. It made me excited to go explore more of our city.
Nicole took us on a bus to downtown to a very nice restaurant. The name of it translated into Bean Hot Pot., I think. She ordered us a variety of food and everything was so delicious! There was a hot pot in the middle of the table that was full of beans and so much flavor but I couldn't tell you what it was. We ate purple potatoes, lotus root, vegetable soup, tofu, pork steak, rice, vegetables and meat in the hot pot, and so many other things that I don't know the name of. All of the food was full of so much flavor and spice. I loved it and I ate until I was way too full.
After dinner, Nicole took us to the supermarket to get some things like toilet paper and shampoo and stuff that we needed. That was so stressful and so frustrating. We couldn't really tell what were were buying. Was it lotion, shampoo, or conditioner? Nicole was very helpful but even with her help we had a hard time finding the lotion section. So we stuck with Johnson's pink baby lotion because we knew it was lotion. That was quite the adventure. If you smell two grown adults smelling like a baby here in Guiyang, it was probably us.
We went to bed on the couch that night (and probably for every night these next few weeks) in front of our only heater to try to stay warm. We were ready to take on the next day.
We headed off in a van to go to the airport while everyone else got on a train together. I always thought that navigating through airports in the states was a little bit stressful but that is a breeze compared to navigating through the Beijing airport. Yes, they did have signs that were translated into English but we still never really knew if we were in the line we needed to be in. We got really good at the trial and error method. At security I got patted down like I have never been patted down before and the lady did it like five times! I was dying to tell her that really wasn't hiding anything under my clothes but I just let her do her thing. They had to send our backpacks through the security thing about three times before they finally let us go. We finally successfully made it through security and to our gate. We even had some time to spare.
Flying into Guiyang is when I realized how beautiful the city really is. Everything is so green, there are trees everywhere, and there are tons of little hills. We got off of the plane and am 99% sure that we were the only white people in the airport. That made it easy for our headmaster and liaison to spot us. They both were so welcoming and made us feel very comfortable. They took us to our apartments and then gave us a couple hours to get settled in before our liaison, Nicole, took us to dinner.
During those couple hours, Shelby and I walked up our street to see if we could find a little snack to hold us over before dinner. This city is very different from Beijing. We live in a very nice part of town and there are fancy hotels up and down our street. There are a couple little shops and a supermarket that we wandered around. It made me excited to go explore more of our city.
Nicole took us on a bus to downtown to a very nice restaurant. The name of it translated into Bean Hot Pot., I think. She ordered us a variety of food and everything was so delicious! There was a hot pot in the middle of the table that was full of beans and so much flavor but I couldn't tell you what it was. We ate purple potatoes, lotus root, vegetable soup, tofu, pork steak, rice, vegetables and meat in the hot pot, and so many other things that I don't know the name of. All of the food was full of so much flavor and spice. I loved it and I ate until I was way too full.
After dinner, Nicole took us to the supermarket to get some things like toilet paper and shampoo and stuff that we needed. That was so stressful and so frustrating. We couldn't really tell what were were buying. Was it lotion, shampoo, or conditioner? Nicole was very helpful but even with her help we had a hard time finding the lotion section. So we stuck with Johnson's pink baby lotion because we knew it was lotion. That was quite the adventure. If you smell two grown adults smelling like a baby here in Guiyang, it was probably us.
We went to bed on the couch that night (and probably for every night these next few weeks) in front of our only heater to try to stay warm. We were ready to take on the next day.
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