Chengdu Day 1

    Thank goodness we left Beijing when we did. The morning we woke up the air quality was freakishly bad. I sounded so bad while I was sleeping Cassidy was worried that I was unable to breathe at all (she woke up me up to make sure I was ok). There was a different kind of excitement in the air now that we were leaving to go to our new home. We load our considerable luggage onto the bus and headed to the airport. The pollution was so bad that we were barely able to see 50 meters in front of us.
    Once at the airport we got a taste of Chinese security. They pulled every one of us USAC aside and scanned us. Then we had to change gates with less than twenty minutes to spare. Beijing is not a small airport by any means, but we made. Cassidy and Brennan almost didn’t make it, which was mildly terrifying. Then we hopped to Chengdu, about a 2.5 hour flight. I stepped off the plane and immediately felt at home. It was incredibly humid and comfortably warm. The unicorn effect was even worse here because there are significantly less foreigners than in Beijing. It’ll be fun though, I’ve decided to turn it into a game.
    We got to our dorm about an hour after landing and compared to Taiwan this place is fantastic. I have my own room, bathroom, closet, and desk. This place is huge!! I really love it though it was kinda funny to watch people freak out because it was unclean. I laughed a little bit on the inside. The USAC people took us to Carrefour, a department store where we got so supplies. Cassidy, Brennan, and I got shoved into the back of a car with two Chinese people we didn’t know as a way to get to Carrefour. Whilst in the car, Brennan had his head out the window and a man rode by on a bicycle and let out an incredibly loud fart. We about died laughing. Everything was really expensive at the store, so there was some discussion of going to Ikea tomorrow after orientation. I am down at this point, Carrefour is too expensive for me. Tong (I was spelling it Cong...I was wrong) really wanted some food at KFC so I got a small snack with him. Numbing pepper for the win!
    Arriving home I unpacked a little bit but quickly began to run into technical problem. Erik, my seat buddy for the Chengdu flight, helped me out and now I have Wifi! Yay! We then took off for a famous restaurant in the area. Cassidy took control and order all of us some awesome food. She has me waaay beat in terms of language skills. I hope I am at her level when December rolls around. I just need to get out on the street and start spitting Mandarin. It’s funny because people are really complaining about the quality of the dorms and screaming at cockroaches.... I am just really relaxed and pleased that I am the only one who controls my air conditioning. I am uploading pictures for previous blog posts so please go back and look if you want. Tomorrow is orientation and classes start on Monday!