Oh, 北京!: The Land Where Everything's Made!

0630hours, I pulled into Beijing, China. Surreal. Thankfully for wonderful amazing parents, business class got my luggage out efficiently, customs and immigration were a breeze and before long, I met a representative of China UniPath (highly highly recommended), Michael. We got into a taxi and he briefly outlined today's plan and explained a little about Beijing and what was to be expected. He even threw in numerous good tips about the Beijing party scene!

Since it was rush hour, it took us close to an hour to arrive at BLCU, where I'll be spending my time the next three months. The taxi ride was interesting, listening to two locals (driver + Michael) conversing with strong, accented Mandarin, obviously I was clueless as to the actual conversation topic. I was brought to my accommodation - the Conference Centre, first to drop my 30kg worth of luggage, don't judge! One thing though, I dread the fact that China is still a cash-based society because I had to pay 90days of rent upfront (imagine the responsibility of that cashload on a poor girl like me).

Michael showed me around the entire campus, assisted me to get a local number, set up a bank account, arranged my registration with the university - in short, I could not have done it without him, especially with the massive language barrier. After spending about 4 hours, he was off to work and I was left to explore!

I got very lucky because I managed to meet my neighbour directly opposite me, a guy from Malaysia too! I was so grateful to find someone straight away and thought to myself "I'm not alone anymore!". A really nice chap, we had lunch, got our internet set-up, stole wireless from Dorm 17, got additional essentials and explored even more. Huge campus, tired legs, it's only 6pm but I'm truly exhausted.

One thing that's for sure, it's polluted here. And the air is annoyingly dry. I refused to put on any sort of face mask, no one really does anyways... but you NEED moisturiser and lip-balm. My nose is already peeling, no joke (yuck, i know). Also, water is gross. Yes, even bottled water. Maybe I'm more sensitive than others, but there's a strange after-taste that lingers. So, say NO to tap water, NO just boiling water, buy them bottled water (or the 12L tanks) and boil it. It's a hefty process, but it's the only decent way.

So that's my first day, looking forward to a placement test tomorrow which will determine which level of Mandarin classes I am going to be in. Ending the post with a few photos :)

Amazing breakfast on the plane, for once.