到了！

 到了北京！
Or for the English-speaking readers… I’m in Beijing!
Ah! A breath of fresh (kind of) air in the land of dumplings, kung fu and flat butts. I’m finally here, and will be for the next 128 days. It’s hard to believe. Yet it doesn’t seem strange. The transition from airport to dorm was much smoother than I imagined. And my transition from English to Chinese has been quite smooth as well. Everything feels very natural, which is good feeling to have when you arrive on the other side of the world.

As always, the Lord was very gracious to me and provided airport to university transportation in a wonderful manner. Last time, He had me meet a nice Chinese family on my trans-Pacific plane. The family ended up giving me a ride to my hotel, even though their car was already full (with 4 people and 4 pieces of luggage) and were not going toward my hotel. This time, I happened to meet a guy who is studying at the same university. Originally, we were going to split a cab to 北师大 (Beijing Normal, bay shi da), but on our way out of the terminal, we ran into a 北师大 representative. Neither one of us had reserved a shuttle to come pick us up. However, it was there – waiting for other students, honestly – but as it turned out, we were the only students to show up. We didn’t actually get to ride the shuttle (it’s too complicated to explain, but you can thank the lovely Chinese bureaucracy); so we caught taxis, but the university paid for our 90 kuai trip.
I seem to have lost my newly found American comrade, though. I am sure I will run into him again soon. But come to think of it, I haven’t run into many people at all. There are a lot of Koreans around and few 外国人 (foreigners; wai guo ren) who appear to possibly be American. Right now, I’m just soaking up this intoxicating feeling of complete independence. It’s a wonderful feeling when you walk around and know that there is not a soul around you who knows your name. You could be anyone or anything, and no one would ever know the difference.
I even have my own room right now. I am supposed to have a roommate. However, she has not arrived…and perhaps she never will. 无所谓。It doesn’t matter. I went ahead and chose my side of the room and have made it as homey as possible for the time being. I believe I improved the aesthetics of my half of the room loads. Take a looksee yourself: 

Before my "homeyifying" took place.

 

Multitudes of thanks to Susan Hedglin for giving me the color wall dots!

I have been told that classes begin Monday. But even though I asked some 北师大 students, they really didn’t seem too sure about the start day themselves. Not surprising, really. I have decided to just accept the way China works. One Chinese acquaintance once described me with the chengyu (4 character phrase) 不拘小节 (bu ju xiao jie), which means “unconcerned with trivialities.” It seems to be a natural fit for adjusting in China. I hope I can keep this naturalness flowing.