2/19/2016

Dear Mom and everyone else, I hope Benson had a good birthday. I thought of him all day long. And, I hope everything is well with you all. I'm doing fine, I think, although today one of the Chinese guys who was leading us around told me to buy coffee because I apparently looked really tired. (I didn't.) The last half day in Beijing was a bit frustrating because I REALLY wanted to look at my bank account and make my student loan payment, but there was no Wi-fi. So, I eventually just gave up and decided to enjoy myself, anyway. People were leaving at odd times throughout the day. My roommate was in the group that left at 4:30 in the morning, so I didn't get to say a proper good-bye to her. The group that was headed to the extreme South of China was supposed to leave at 9:30 that morning, but something went wrong so they were stuck there for another day. My group checked out at 12:30; enough time to be bored, but not enough time to do anything about it. We rode a bus to the train station, where I had a really embarrassing situation when I was trying to find the "safe place" where I had stashed my passport. But, I found it. At the train station we had two hours to kill, so we went shopping for food to eat on the train. It was fun, but I don't think there's much to tell about that. The train was a bit crowded. It was a sleeper train, and there were six beds in one compartment. I was lucky and got the bottom bunk, but I think it would have been fun to climb up on top, too. It was an overnight train, and there wasn't much to see in the dark, but when it was light, it was pretty. It was a weird night. I wasn't uncomfortable or anything, but I kept waking up thinking it was almost morning. (Granted I've been doing that since I came, because of jet lag.) I'm the only American in the Suzhou group. They're mostly Brits, but we have a few South Africans and one Australian. I'm the only one who doesn't drink or swear, and several others smoke. I feel so out of place, even among the other white people, but they are nice and we get along well. Only two in the Suzhou group are guys. I wonder how it is for them? By the way, "Suzhou" is pronounced like "Sue" and "Joe," in case you didn't know. We made it to Hangzhou. We dropped our stuff at the hotel, but didn't go in. Even though we were all wearing yesterday's clothes and all we wanted was a shower, they took us straight to orientation. I hadn't brushed my hair all day, and I didn't want to deal with the fuss of putting my contacts back in, so today I went around with messy hair and glasses. We went to the bank and set up Chinese bank accounts, even though they don't have money in them yet. We went to a store and bought lunch. I decided to try a dumpling, and it was really good. After having so many dumplings for breakfast for the last week, I can say I'm a fan of dumplings.*:P tongue We also had orientation, where a guy just talked to us about more important stuff, like rules and whatnot. Then, we FINALLY got on a bus and went to the hotel, where I did not hesitate to shower. I feel so clean! My roommate at the hotel is Georgina, the Australian. Tomorrow, we have to get up and go have a medical exam. We're not allowed to eat anything for breakfast. I've heard rumors that they'll be doing blood tests. Not looking forward to that. After that, I think we have a free day to enjoy Hangzhou. We're planning on going to West Lake together. Not sure what's there, but it sounds pretty. We're taking a bus to Suzhou on Sunday morning. I love you all. Have fun with school and kids and stuff. Cheers! (By the way, I've been spending so much time with British people, I'm wondering how long my American accent will last.) Love, Chelsey*:x lovestruck by hpaich on