It Is What It Is

As I stepped off the plane from the US, the sights and smells of China already came rushing back to me from my last visit in May. Outside the Beijing air was hazy, making it hard to see far. The air had the distinct smell only found in China and it was familiar. These things only served to make feel at peace with my choice to return to China for the year. At the moment, I felt very happy to be alive and living out a great adventure.
Now, I am in the city of Baoding. It is a fairly large city, with maybe 4 million people in it. The city, like most Chinese cities I've been too has people and businesses all around it. Every street is full of different shops and people sitting outside on those streets selling little items like books, socks, electronics, pens, and anything you can think of really.
The campus where I am teaching is large with about 40,000 students on both the old and new campus. Hebei University is considered the best school in the Providence for the students to attend. I am hoping my teaching will live up to this standard. My school is also as the Chinese might say "very beautiful". There are many new building with lots of white brick and also there are gardens in the middle of campus. In the gardens there is a small pond and lots of benches for the students to study on. One of the other teachers who came with me, and was here in May told me the students "neck" at night on the benches outside. I was a little surprised to find this out. There are also basketball courts, tennis, and volleyball courts in the middle of campus. No matter what the hour there are students out playing on these courts. The Chinese love basketball. I don't mind since I like basketball as well. Overall, campus feels similar to a college campus in the US.
My apartment on campus is very nice. I have a small kitchen, complete with a little fidge, microwave, hotplate, kettle, and no sink. I have to use my bathroom sink for all cooking and cleaning. A bathroom of my own. Though, the bathrooms here are more like wetrooms, because the shower is right beside the toliet and there is no divide. So all the toliet paper dispensers have covers to protect them from the water. The toliet often gets wet as well. In my shower is also a huge light thing I am told you turn on in the winter to help keep the shower warm. It is so bright. I have a seperate bedroom with a desk for my computer, clothes, and a TV. I am excited because the TV has BBC news, which I of course love. At the end of this post are pictures of my apartment.
With IECS in Baoding there are five teachers, Jon, Ryan, Tim, Emily, and I. We work at two different Universities here. Jon and Ryan work at a Finacial College just a few blocks away. They only live about 5-10 minutes away from Tim, Emily, and I who all work together at Hebei University. I think our team is going to work really well together and we are all getting along really well so far. There is purpose in our being together. The photo at the top is of Emily and I.
We have already come a long way since arriving. I unpacked and have mostly settled my room. We had lunch with some of the officials. This is where I asked someone what one of the dishes we were eating was and he replied, "It is what it is". Who knows what it really was? We also went and bought cell phones today. Tomorrow is the day we will sign our contracts and get our teaching schedules. I think Monday is the first day of classes.
I am so excited to hang out with my students and spend intitional time with them. I think this year is going to be really amazing. I can not wait to see all that is in store.