- We made it to Shine City on our own today! We went with Carmel but it was our first time off campus without people who have been here longer than us. It was soooo hot though...112 RealFeel temp!!! After cooling off in some stores, we found the grocery store (in the basement) and explored that for a bit. It’s a little expensive but close by so we will probably use it in the future. Then we decided on lunch at a little European-style cafe. It was great but slightly odd - they were playing contemporary Christian music from the early 2000s! And also I had spaghetti.
- Tonight we had dinner with a bunch of other teachers in BIBA Bay. It was so wonderful to spend time together before the busyness of orientation/professional development begins and we managed to make some delicious food! We used our pressure cooker for the first time, to make rice, and it turned out great! Woo Google Translate. Everyone was jealous that we had it (Erica had set it aside for us when people were moving out and leaving things) and we promised to bring rice every time :) It was lovely to eat together and hang out and get to know each other. Everyone comes to BIBA with such unique experiences!
- I awoke bright and early at 3:30 am and my body had no intention of going back to sleep. I decided I would read all the documentation that they had left about the appliances in our apartment and write the first blog post (which I still couldn't post because our internet wasn't working).
- Once the sun was up I checked on Emily to see if she was awake. She was still resting comfortably so I let her sleep. Without internet, my next task was to start unpacking all of our bags. But we also don't have much storage or any hangers so I mostly made piles of things around the apartment (it's big enough to do that!). Around 10:00 a.m., Emily was finally awake and I made her some toast while we discussed what we wanted to do that day. We were expecting someone to come check us into our apartment and go over the different procedures of living in BIBA Bay (the name of our apartment complex) and we had a list of things that needed to be checked/fixed (including a smoke detector that has been beeping). We decided to nap while we waited for the check-in. This is when my body decided it was time to sleep and we both ended up sleeping on and off until about 7:00 p.m! Azucena and Erica both checked on us throughout the afternoon (Emily answered the door for both), which was super sweet of them. Erica had planned to make us dinner that night but her daughter needed an early bedtime so she arranged for another teacher, James, to meet us. He came around 7:00 and invited us to walk to Shine City with him and his fiance, Quinny.
- It was sooo humid but the walk wasn’t bad, especially since we got to chat with James and Quinny the whole way. They arrived on Tuesday and they said it already feels like they've been there for weeks. Hopefully we'll feel that way after a few days! Arriving on the weekend and not having internet has really made us feel behind BUT everyone is being so helpful and kind to us, offering to take us places, to cook is good, and to let us use their phones/internet. When we got to Shine City, we met 2 older couples at a Mexican restaurant (this area is filled with all kinds of not-Chinese restaurants). Cat and Tony have been at BIBA for two years (they teach 5th grade) and Sharyn and Bruce have been at BIBA for one year (Sharyn is the HS/MS principal and Bruce teaches PE/health). So many of our new friends (James/Quinny, Cat/Tony, Sharyn/Bruce, and Erica/Korey) are from Australia! We exchanged stories and told about ourselves and they all offered help to get is sim cards and groceries. It was wonderful to cap our second day meeting new people and creating more awesome connections, even though we spent most of day in bed.
- We arrived at the Beijing airport around 4 pm local time. After getting our luggage and getting through customs, we were met in the airport by a few BIBA staff and took a 30 minute car ride to the school campus which is also where we our apartment is located.
- We got our 11 bags into the apartment and were given some time to settle in. Instead of starting to unpack we took the opportunity to lay down and rest (especially since our internet wasn't working). A couple hours later, one of the other house spouses, Korey, stopped by to take us to dinner. He has been here with his wife, Erica, and daughter for about 3 months so he has a pretty good lay of the land. They've purchased a tuk-tuk which is a mo-ped type vehicle, and that's what Korey took us in to meet the others for dinner.
- There is a big shopping center called Shine City about a mile away from the school campus, with a biking/walking/tuk-tuk trail that runs directly from the school campus. This center includes a Starbucks, Subway, Burger King and many other shops and restaurants. We arrived at the restaurant and met a miryad of other native English speakers who will be teaching at the school or are connected to people at BIBA. We hung out, talked and ate before heading back to the apartment.
- Once we returned, we were able to finally get online at Korey and Erica's apartment to notify our family and friends that we arrived safely. We stayed for about an hour, getting to know them and another teacher (Azucena, from North Carolina), before heading back to our apartment to get our first night's sleep in our new home.
