Tricked ya!

So, technically, this blog is "blocked." But alas, I am back on it and will continue to blog on it until what I use to avoid the block, gets blocked as well. That's China for ya.

I guess I should do somewhat of a quick run-through of what this past day (days?) has been like for me. We were piled into a bus, about 20-30 of us, and taken an hour outside of Beijing to a more mountainous, rural region. The place we were going to was described to us as a "resort," but in China slang, that just means...well, not quite a resort but better than most other options. If you were in Europe, you would describe this place as a hostel - it's got a central courtyard with an eating area and two small ponds. There are also two ducks that hangout in the courtyard and act like dogs, especially while we're eating. I never noticed ducks have tongues, and I've been fascinated by it. If you've ever eaten muscles out of the shell, that's kind of how the duck's tongue looks in its mouth.

The boys are separated to one side of the courtyard, the girls on another. Most of the rooms contain 3 or 6 beds, depending on the size, and most of us have finagled ways to be in rooms with people we like. The two girls who happened to be on my same flight in, are actually the ones I've also bonded the most with, so that worked out well. We're now all rooming together in a "luxury" room, which is categorized as such because it has effective air conditioning and a shower. However, the lighting in the bathroom makes it look like the torture chamber/bathroom from the movie "Saw" because its this bluish gray, fluorescent lighting - the kind that, when you look in the mirror, makes the veins in your face and under your eyes look all purple and sickly.

It's funny because we have air conditioning and wifi (kind of loose, limited wifi though), yet we have only 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the night where hot water is available. Also, our shower is not quite a shower...it's like, two shower heads on the wall of the bathroom. There's no clean delineation between where shower ends and the rest of the bathroom begins. However, shifting the shower head to the far right mostly ensures that the dry change of clothes I put on the toilet seat won't get wet.

Our meals so far have been pretty good, definitely better than I expected. One of my new guy friends actually found a spider in his cooked spinach, but mostly these things are oddities rather than common occurrences. One thing that really surprised me was the amount of couples that came on this trip, with this program. There are probably about 4 or 5 couples on this trip, which is about 10 people out of the 70 in the program. I think that's a pretty hefty amount, especially since most of us are relatively young. It's not that I'm against couples (obviously), but, I don't know. What if something happens and they break up? Then all their memories of China and this unique experience, will be slightly muddled with the memories of their relationship. Maybe i'm a cynic. I hope none of them find this blog and take personal offense.

Anyways, I feel like I've said enough for the day. Most of the people seem pretty cool, but I've definitely bonded closely with a core group of maybe 4 other people, two girls two guys. I'll be sure to keep you updated if that number expands. Some of the kids are typical Caucasian, East Asian Studies major, types, if you know what I mean. One kid is wearing a black shirt that outlines the food pyramid of zombies. However, word on the street is that he also knows how to get onto Facebook, so he definitely had his 15 minutes of fame with that rumor. My new friends and I are trying to get housed with each other, even if that makes our commute a bit longer. After all, a lot of China is about discovering it, and I feel like it'd be great to have people with similar-minded ambitions, living together to explore together.

Oh, and I have made a little secret discovery that makes my social life here wayyy easier. It starts with an "F" and ends with "book." Yes, my friends, I found a way to skirt the filters and still get on Facebook. Tell me that's not awesome. Seriously.