Getting There:

So here I am writing in my blog, trying to give myself some sense that I did not, in fact, fall off the face of the earth....maybe more for myself than for any of you.... Coming to you live with a stolen wireless connection and a fleeting battery life on my computer, it's Elizabeth Fei reporting from Beijing.

After a mini freakout at the airport when I realized that although my flight was continental it was being operated by Northwest and I therefore had to brave the insanely long Northwest lines instead of the short Continental ones, I managed my flight from MN to Newark without a hitch, giving me some time to rest up and catch up on my Sky Mall reading (did you know they are now marketing a Marshmellow Shooter)

When I arrived at Newark airport I knew I only had 1 hour and 40 minutes before my flight to Beijing and needed to find my gate as quickly as possible. Much to my dismay, however, Newark airport has like, NO monitors--this, naturally caused me to have another mini freakout. But after following my Beijing energies, using my noggin, and following my energies some more, I found my flight. Although I didn't have much time before we boarded, I managed to connect with a girl I had friended on Facebook, Charlotte and we had a nice chat before began to board. I even sat on the wing and just as I looked out the window I saw the TSA people pull up with my bag and put it onto the plane. So there was one less mini freakout avoided.


The plane ride was excruciatingly long, and my riding companions (two Chinese men) didn't like moving too much so I felt bad even to go to the bathroom. I watched: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Follow that Bird, some chinese movie about weird pills, some chinese show (without english subs) that kinda reminded me of oprah. I ate: steak (!) and dim sum (!) --- I am going to be more adventurous with my food choices. I also listened to the Broadway and 'Hits' musical stations while watching the little digital plane get closer and closer to Beijing. On a side note, rather than going back across the US like I had thought it would, the plane went north, over the north pole and then south through Russia and Mongolia....whatevs.

After ANOTHER mini-freakout about customs and then realizing it wasnt a big deal at all I met up with more IES folks at baggage claim and walked with them through the gates into what was officially, Beijing. The first thing that struck me was the people packed together shouting and holding up signs....and all of them were chinese, save one salient group of americans wearing gray IES sweatshirts, lucky me.

They got us to the bus and sort of just let us sit there to stew. The one thing I'm noticing about being here, both in China and as an IES student, is that there is very little regard for the individual and moreso regard for the efficiency of a machine. The IES 'helpers' did little more that act like shepherds, making sure we all stayed in one clump, not bothering to tell us where we were going on the bu s or what we would be doing when we got there or anything. Similarly, Beijing did not appear to be as quaint as I had imagined-- no cute asian people riding bikes, no big bird on a motor scooter, no red paper lanterns...just a lot of cranes and buildings and taxis. On the bus we were trying to liken the city to an american one and decided that its a bit like New York, with some harlem thrown in.

After battling Beijing traffic we pulled up to Bei Wai, where they instructed us (the Language Intensives) to get out while the others (Contemporary Issues) stayed to go elsewhere...PS. I am really jealous of these CI's because they get to have a single room in a dorm that ALSO has no curfew (our's is 11-12ish). I was sad because a lot of the people I had bonded with were CI's. After they got us out they walked us in the cold to our dorm (building 7, I think) they told us to give up our passport (WHAT) to the fuwuyuan (worker, kind of like janitor/maid/consierge person of the dorm) so we could get our room key. I was assigned to room 312 (this might change when the Chinese roommates come back from holiday, so I won't do pics just yet) and had to lug my bag and messenger bag up the stairs. By this time I was getting really overwhelmed by being shoved around and not being told anything and then come to find out that my genius idea that I'd had for getting my computer charger to work in China in fact does NOT work. One of the RA's hands me this impossibly large packet with my itinerary for orientation and then leaves again. Somehow, this sort of set me off the edge and I started crying... I tried to hold it together for my temporary roommate, who is nice but not necessarily someone I would choose to spend my time with, but I just couldn't take being thrust into a new situation with no bearings whatsoever...

I pulled myself together enough to realize how jetlagged I was and they told us we were going to dinner. This is all very blurry, because I was emotionally and physically exhausted--I ate, listened to some boring stuff, felt lonely and came back. Had a hall meeting and am now writing this.

I wish I could say my first experiences in Beijing have eased all my fears about going abroad but they really haven't....

...the only way out is up....
...a leap of faith.....