Wednesday morning- Xing1qi1 san1 shang4 wu3 (zao3shang is earlier)

Yesterday was my first full day in Beijing. I got up early, 4:30 and went through emails, ordered my study materials, and started preparing for my tutors. I used the time to figure out what I had forgotten or misunderstood that I needed. Would you believe the old cliche- toothbrush? Hand cream- now that was just a bad brain drop. I use lots of Eucerin. I also needed to get a bigger towel. I brought my Speedo towel that is essentially a chamois. OK in a pinch, but not for 8 weeks. Last, there is a clothes washer in my suite, reminiscent of the one my husband and I used once in the 14th arrondissement in Paris. My flat mates seem to be hand washing their clothes, but I would like to save my hands, so I got washing powder. The young man who helped me shop looked like a Terry clone, all confused to be in any place that might have detergent or soap. More about him later.

My schedule- arrange for tutoring hours, get a local(?) orientation tour, contact Erik F, work on NJ loose ends, figure out how to communicate enough to be able to eat. ( Since I was doing local chore, I figured out that I could eat up the cheese and crackers from my trip and splurge on dinner) Worked just fine.

Somewhere along the line, BC and I tried to video conference. The video worked just fine, but the sounds was just one way. I could hear him just fine, he could not hear me. As I recall we had much the same problem when we tried to do this with Kestrel on Googletalk a few years ago. Hopefully, we will work the kinks out. It was very nice to see each other real time.

I got and sent my first texts on my program cell phone. Erik F. sent me a test, and then my tutor texted me so that we could schedule our lessons. Her name is Silvia. ( The lady who is sending "Planet Earth" home in a Chinese equivalent to FedEx is called Sophia or Zhou1 Li4 Fei- FeiFei for short) Quite the flowery name choices in English. No one has offered to call me anything in Chinese, or asked. not sure of the point- like an Appalachian Trail handle? Something you get called like a nickname- retlo the word killer?

I also wanted to go to the ATM, post office, and school library, and train station with my orientation guide.

Things I don't want to foget but don't have the time to chat about:

Roses, persimmon trees?, heat and dust, relative lack of cigarettes so far, smells in subway stations, the mysterious spa bath, suite chores, wearing out the student who was my guide, dinner choices, meeting up with Erik, acquiring one more city, I can navigate in- Beijing is really much bigger than it looks on a map, taxi rides at night can be lovely- so many lights, the Olympic buildings are quite striking- especially the pool building- It looks like a rectangle of solid water.