Made it!

Oh man, it's only the first day? Man, crazy times. Today was a lot busier than I was expecting. (Considering I basically expected to sleep until noon and wander around looking for food all day, that's not that hard through.) Where to start....

So I discovered that accents are a really big issue here. I was pretty worried going through the airport and taxi when I couldn't understand a word that was being said (also not the best at 1 AM.) However, later in the Global Village (where my dorm is) I was able to understand a fair amount. So that made me feel better.

Speaking of Global Village, here's some pictures for you guys.

Airport trying to be a little more sustainable. But even more interesting; I can read the entire first line!! :D And half of the bottom one. I'm so cool. 

My room. Pretty minimalist, but hey. It works. (and I've heard it's way better that the non-international student dorms., so I can't complain.)

Yay prettiness!

Dorms & hotel

I live here! (in the building behind the front one, which is basically just a lobby and expensive restaurant.) I live on the 4th floor. A lot of the rest of the UCEAP students live on the 9th-11th

zen garden type theme going through a lot of the village

They segregate us all into different dorms. This is the Japanese dorm.

This is one of the smaller bike racks.

Tree!

One of the main things they tell you in the e-mails and guides about coming into the airport is do not accept any taxi ride offers from the arrivals area, because they are not official and you might be overcharged. Naturally, getting there at 1 AM I was bombarded with offers as soon as I stepped in. I stayed strong though, and waited until I got all the way to the taxi waiting area to be ripped off. (Considering I was a stupid 外人 who could barely understand a word of what he said, he was actually pretty nice. I think he got pretty fed up with my ignorance on typical Beijing taxi rates though.)

By the time I actually decided to take a taxi, (as opposed to waiting it out in the airport in case the front desk wasn't open and I couldn't get in,) and got dropped off, I was wandering the street at 4 AM looking for the gateway into the village. Luckily some kind souls saw me from across the street and took pity. Apparently they made a bet about whether I was American or not. The guy (Dieu) won. Dieu was actually in the Spring program at PKU, and was just finishing up his term and heading back to UCLA. The girl (Yiu? I don't remember very well) was a native he was introduced to when she studied abroad in UCLA. They were kind enough (or bored enough, I'm pretty sure it was a mixture of both) to guide me to the front desk and all the way up to my floor. Thaaank you. T-T So helpful. 

To this moment I have not seen my suite-mate, although I have heard her. In fact, right now she is playing some Chinese movie or something pretty loudly in her room. I'd introduce myself, but I don't want to interrupt. :/ maybe later. She also woke me up at 10 AM, so there went my day of sleeping in. I think she was skyping someone, and had the speakers on. (pretty dang loud, although being the one being woken up, I might be biased.) I don't think she realized I was there..... Tomorrow I'll start leaving the door open so I can introduce myself when she comes out.

So it turns out it was probably a good thing that she woke me up because the rest of the day was actually pretty busy. And that's the cliff hanger! Because it's 1 AM here and I'm super tired. Also, I have to get up for orientation at 8:30 in the morning! Joy! (It won't be that bad, I'm actually looking forward to it. Kinda.) So it's time for this Stephanie (not the other Stephanie) to go to sleep. Hopefully I can catch up tomorrow. I'll probably start updating this blog less as things settle down, but for now there's quite a bit to talk about. I haven't even gotten into today yet. Did I fill it with too much useless detail? Comment below and let me know! And leaving you with that, 谢谢，再见！