Oh how the world turns

I have been thinking about what to write here for four days since I landed in China. If the words whirlwind ever truly applied to a situation in my life, this seems like the most apt place to use it and still something strangely uninformative rings from that word alone. Before I left, I told everyone that not only was this the scariest thing I've ever done, it's the scariest thing I've ever thought of. Excuse the use of ending a sentence with a preposition, but I don't feel like being to formal. However, China has already developed a strange comfort level with me that suits my anything goes sort of mentality. The flights over went off without much trouble. The first to Toronto was nothing I hadn't done before save the fact that I landed in a foreign country for the first time in my life. I feel a lot of first will be broken over the next year and that is something I very much look forward to. (again apologies) The second flight was something all together different. 13 hours on a plane, with in flight movies, multiple meals and the ability to mingle for hours without the seatbelt sign herding us back to our assigned seats. We ( Brian and I) flew over with 4 other people from our program. Also on the flight were other ex-pats, going to different parts of China to teach like us and a visiting Professor at the University of Peking, who we buddied up to. (#3) All with the idea that the more people you have made contact with in a country of 1.3 billion, the better you would feel. Few quick things I learned from the flights.
1)Everyone outside America has been generally nicer than the average person in side America
2)Sitting for periods of time longer than 4 hours is harder than one would think
3)Airplane food on overseas flights ranges from strangely enjoyable to unsure if it qualifies in any food group
4)Don't be honest on your medical forms to a fault

The final thing comes from the fact that upon entering China we were asked to fill out a medical form that asked us if we had a series of symptoms, however they didn't inform us that these symptoms should only be related to Swine flu and not a pre-existing condition, so when I checked that I had joint pain in my knees from an old sports injury, I got whisked away to a kiosk to be examined for H1N1. Once they discovered, I was being too honest, I was quickly sent on my way.

Having final made it through Customs, which consisted of absolutely no bag checking what so ever, we were finally ready to leave the airport, which sounds easier than it was. Beijing International Airport rivals most small cities in size. Once we all got situated on the bus, no small task for 50 jet-lagged and tired ex-pats, it easily took us 20 minutes of Highway driving to escape the confines of the airport.

Arriving at our hotel around 7pm Beijing time, I, along with most people, was thoroughly exhausted, because I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep in the last 47 hours (intentionally) and had actually not seen darkness in the last 36, flying with the sun an all. However, we were not done yet. We had to check in, organize our Visa information and on top of that, be friendly and warm to all the other new friends you have just met.

The last few days have been a series of meetings and lectures about what we are to do in China, mixed heavily with copious amounts of drinking and socializing, two of my better strengths in life, if I do say so myself, and I just did so there! Everything is being thrown at us and we are all trying to stick as much proverbial spaghetti to our wall as we can. Everyone has been so friendly, open, engaging, and everything and more I had hoped for. Obviously with any new group this large, there are people who don't mesh, but with so many friends to make, if you don't click, just move along. There are so many stories and wonderful people to meet that I am glad to be informally and formally tied to this group for the next year. It is a wonderful bunch of Americans, Brits, Aussies, Kiwis, Dutch, Spaniards and a Canadian.

I'll leave you with one funny story from my first few days. I was sitting at a table and one of the Chinese staff from the company came over to me and asked if I was Cory. I replied yes, thinking something was wrong with my Visa or something else bad had happened. So I then asked, why she was looking for me, to which she responded that her and another Chinese girl from the program had seen my picture and thought I was cute, and wanted to meet me. So there you have it. All I needed to do was travel 5000 miles around the world to become the hottest thing since sliced bread.