duck neck and octopus legs

considering the longest I’ve ever been on a plane is about six hours, i should’ve known I was in for a real surprise. Since we left jfk at 5:00 on monday and got into Beijing at 7:00 on tuesday, i completely convinced myself I would only have to endure a two hour flight. false. definitely false, the plane ride from the US to china is not two hours for those who may be mistaken. luckily i was able to sleep most of the ride. however while awake, i did manage to convince a high school senior to attend st. joseph’s in the fall. i think sju should start to pay me. the first thing i noticed when i got off the plane was the air. its gross. its all smog i haven't seen a cloud since i got here and today the sky was kind of blue for the first time. you hear about the air being really bad, but it really is awful. its like every day is foggy. But other than spending more than half a day on a plane everything went smoothly and we successfully arrived at our new home.

after arriving we were informed there is no elevator, fortunately I live on the top floor and luckily my suitcases weighed over 60 lbs. each God bless whichever poor soul brought them up to my room for me. my dorm room is about the same size as a freshman dorm at sju, prolly a bit bigger. two beds, two desks, two closets, two bookcases, a table and chairs, and a bathroom. not too shabby. we lucked out by having western toilets, however we were not as lucky with our shower situation. our shower is merely a showerhead stuck on the wall of our bathroom. i have a bit of trouble with this shower situation and every time i manage soak every piece and bit of our bathroom. i would be lying if i said i wasn’t newly obsessed with chinese showers. everything is obviously still in suitcases and this morning I found a sweet little creepy crawler roaming the top of one of them. also whenever my arm or leg brushes our white walls i get large chalk marks all over me, this mostly proves to me an inconvenience. we have tiny little closets with two shelves, which is hardly enough space for my extensive wardrobe, but i am learning to deal. overall, it could have been a lot worse

everything in this country is so cheap!!!! i will never get over it. a cab ride a bar seen is 3.50 total, split between 5 people. i have yet to pay more than 3.00 a meal. a good bottle of wine is about 10.00. its great. and tipping is illegal! these chinese, they're great.

i found a 7-11 in china. it has duck neck, but no slurpees.

yesterday we went to the great wall of china, and i sang the billy joel song the whole way up, obviously. it was pretty smoggy, but wonderful just the same. it was crazy and the thing goes on forever. the steps are all uneven and crooked and it was so steeep that when going down you couldn't even see the next step. i also have never sweat so much in my whole life. talk about a work out. when we got to the end we set of to find the toboggan ride down. my legs shook every time i stopped to take a picture. it was crazy though, just miles and miles of the misshapen wall. it was really cool to see! the best part was the toboggan ride down. it kind of resembles a luge. you sit on this sled-like contraption and have a control to accelerate and slow down. then you sped down this windy, silver pathway. i can basically said i sled down the great wall of china. it was so much fun!!

tomorrow is my last day in beijing, then sunday afternoon we are off the xi'an to start our silk road trip! i'm really excited except i haven't started my project, obviously. but starting sunday for two weeks, me and 51 of my classmates will be traveling along the silk road stopping at various destinations. and riding a camel!! i can't wait!

maura schlupp, i found your future husband. he is beautiful, asian, just graduated from fordham. and he is great. i'm actually not being sarcastic. imma get a picture with him and send it you. he is perfect.

PS: unfortunately, i have yet to run into an actual asian pop star, however i purchase many products with asian pop starts on them, hoping this task will one day bring my closer to the future love of my life. while walking down the bar towns of hou hai and sanlitun i am exposed to even more new wonderful asian pop music, it is wonderful. i am trying my best to practice modesty, which i'm obviously great at, to try attract the asian pop stars. but so far no bites yet, wish me luck.

preparing the right mindset.

since i believe that my invincible-ness is on the decline, i am starting to try and prepare myself for this so called culture shock. i have begun to try and ease myself into the asian way of life by performing small tasks that will most likely go a long way. examples include: using chopsticks, playing chinese rosetta stone, looking at house pets as meals, using the phrase "xie xie" whenever possible, and last, but not least, jamming to asian pop music. this last task has obviously been my favorite seeing that asians have great taste in music. this little exercise has also allowed me to peruse the market, seeing that i am going abroad solely to find an asian pop star boyfriend. i have decided to share my all time favorite asian pop song, introduced to me by the wonderful gao. i am now averaging about 17 views a day (increasing weekly), in an effort to try and pre-immerse myself in the asian culture. enjoy.