Hey everyone,
This is the first chance Diane and I have had to get internet access. There is not so much wifi here so emailing from my phone probably won't happen as planned. Diane and I are writing simultaneously so you can get both sides of the story. Blogspot and facebook and much else is censored here but we may be able to post pictures via picasa. We are in the computer lab right now and will have minimal to no internet access once we finish here at the university in June. We are getting a local phone and number soon and will be able to recieve tastefully infrequent calls from the US.
We are having fun and are glad that we finally got a plane flight. Our hotel/dorm here at Nanjing University is clean, comfortable, and pleasant and we are sleeping well even on the night train. I was worried the train bunk wouldn't be long enough but I slept great. We are still tired early and waking up around 4:30 - 6:30ish but our meal times are pretty normal. The food so far has been really good. Our first morning I tried pigs ear. The 17 other students are really friendly. Most are from St. Augustines and NC State.
The time zone difference is 12 hours from Eastern time. We are a calendar day ahead of you. Diane and I are working on written letters to send home, too.
Fun facts:
1. Nikon camera manual is censored online. Is it that much more insidious than facebook?
2. Babies here walk around with split pants so their bottoms show.
3. Chinese tourists in Beijing like jumping into our photos and ask to take pictures with some of us, especially the black people in our group.
4. The tap water isn't safe to drink. Many toilets are holes in the floor (but not ours in the hotel/dorm, thankfully)
5. We saw a split pants baby today with a plastic bag hanging off of his private part.
6. Chinese tones are hard to say without sounding angry and our teacher tells us if we sound too angry.
7. McDonalds has no biscuits. English muffins < biscuits.
8. It has been 60s-70s here in Nanjing but last week was almost 100 and we expect the temperature to be equivalent to Raleigh.
9. There are mosquitos and ants but the mosquitos are smaller.
9.5. There was one of those hotel room lurker mosquitos just like Mexico City, bro! It woke us up so many times!
10. We found an exceptionally beautiful moth on the ground this morning, like two leaves and a tiny magnolia bud. We saved it by moving it to a tree where the little golden birds that sound like they are laughing can eat it.
11. The sky starts getting light before 5
12. The university gym on this campus has 4 options: outdoor track, outdoor basketball, indoor tennis, and indoor badminton.
13. I don't really want to play badminton.
14. Drivers, bikes, and pedestrians on Beijing highways treat all speeds and paved land like a big log flume. Horns > blinkers > headlights > helmets > seatbelts.
15. The music here isn't nearly as bad as Mexican Banda.
16. Modern cities are full of 3rd world-like shanties and apartment buildings. Countryside farms are smaller rectangular plots that look like they are tended by couples rather than machines.
17. Pigs ear is crunchier than it seems when you prod it.
This is only what we've seen so far but hopefully it starts to give a picture. I did get a picture of the baby pants but can't figure out how to send it yet.
Love,
Riley
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