First few days in China

Tuesday (our first full day in China):
We woke up around 9am - called my parents and checked e-mail (and figured out multiple websites are banned). Emily and I attempted to go to the cafetaria in the building across from us but it looked like they were in a meeting so instead we took a short walk. We got back to my room around 12:30 and needed a nap (jet lagged kicked our butts...) and we would be awake by 4pm to meet up with Kim's Yusi...however we napped for 4 hours and had to call him up to tell him what happened.
Emily and I ended up hanging out with Yusi for about 6 hours. We helped me purchase my Chinese cellphone, brought us to a grocery store, brought us to a restaurant, and showed us Kim's favorite bar. Together, Emily and I spent $20 at the grocery and we bought jam, bread, blueberry flavored Lay's chips, Bimbo bread, milk flavored Cheetos balls, apples ($2 for 4), bananas ($0.25 for 4), water, and other things I can't think of right now. Chips here have the weirdest flavors - blueberry, prawn, roasted chicken. For dinner we ate at the Golden Dumpling and ate...you guessed it...dumplings!! Three types: beef/onion, carrot/egg, egg. They were all REALLY GOOD!!!
Talking to Yusi was almost more excited than going out and seeing the city of Baoding. He had some insightful things to say like, "the Chinese government tries to turn smart people into fools and sometimes succeeds." We learned that every student goes through military training (I can sometimes hear them practicing and yelling from my window). Popular American music here includes The Beatles, and other happy sounding tunes about pain and love. Asian Idol actually could not be shown during primetime on TV because it promotes democracy so in China they only show it later at night.

Wednesday (China's Valentine's Day):
Jet lag still had an upper hand on us so we woke up late and then skyped people. Today was not smoggy or foggy and was actually beautiful. We were worried it would always be smoggy (like you see on TV) but it was just the weather for one day. Another good note is there is a large park right near our apartment complex. It's beautiful and I think I might have to go there to read sometimes.
Wednesday was a slower day in general. For most of our meals, we had dumplings that were left over. Actually, we put them in paper cups and heated them up in a microwave. Emily and I feel like a newly married couple struggling to survive in their new apartment in a big city. We did take a walk and purchased water, iced tea, ice cream, and magazines on our own. Emily bought Cosmo but it has an Asian model and its in Chinese - it's interesting to see the ads though. In the US, people buy tanning lotion and try to be as tan as possible. In China, people buy whitening lotion and try to be as white as possible. I guess what's beautiful is all cultural... I bought an "Overseas English" magazine that is in both English and Chinese. I love it! It has some English phrases and how to use them in conversation but it just sounds funny when you read them outloud. I may have to bring it into my classes and buy every new issue.

Thursday:
Web cam chatting on skype worked! (seems my webcam has worked almost every other time I've attempted to use it though). Video chatted with Marcelle and my Dad this morning. Then we got a skype call from Kim - she is in Russia for a wedding and will be in China Saturday night. She is super excited and so are we - she's like our big sister who helped us get ready to come!
We found where the two bikes that Kim gave us the keys for were located and rode around a little. When I buy my own, it's going to have to fit me better haha. This time when we went into the cafetaria there was not a meeting going. Trying to get food was interesting as the workers do not speak English and Emily and I do not speak Chinese. We pointed at food and pictures and they served us. They were friendly and one worker tried to show us how to properly hold the chopsticks. While there, we saw the school worker who picked us up at the airport show up with another American girl. Her name is Brittaney, she's from California, and she's actually studying abroad at Hebei University.
After, we met up with Yusi again. This time to take pictures of old people in this "park" where old people play cards and some hackey sack type game (looked like hackey sack but they were using a weight with feathers attached - there were some sprightly old people!). Next, we were introduced to The Honey Pool - a cute place with ice shakes and cheesecakes. I LOVE IT THERE! For dinner, we actually ate Korean food...the sauce was spicy but the beef and veggies were very delicious. On the way back to the apartments we met Cameron - a Chinese-American teacher from California who taught here last year and is returning just like Kim is.

Friday:
Emily and I were pooped from a busy day so we called family and friends in the morning and had leftovers for lunch. We found a store on campus called Yesbuy - it has a lot of random stuff kind of like Wal-Mart so we purchased more groceries and washclothes. Next, Emily brought her bike to get a wheel fixed. Then...we went back to Yesbuy later on. However, we also took a lot of pictures in the park right next door to us. The lizard my mom put in my suitcase was featured in many photos haha.
For dinner we ate in the cafe again but this time attempted to read the chinese words for the food. The workers were nice and helped correct our pronounciation. We took a lot of food for leftovers and on the way into our apartment met three more American teachers: Tim (from Virginia), Amelia (from North Carolina), and Carrie (from Virginia).

That's what I've been up to this first few days in China!