Friday, June 20, 2008

My first day in China!

Today has been quite a day.

Everything about China is amazing, and the TIP (Total Immersion Program) is incredible!
I landed at around 11 PM local time, and didn't get to sleep until around 1 am, but I have adjusted to the time change really well.
In the morning we started training overcast and early and we spent time talking about God, and some other things I probably should wait and mention later. ;)

Also today we ate the BEST food I’ve ever had before; some dishes that I can't even remember or pronounce, and some which were strange, such as fried eel or seaweed and egg soup or cold chicken and very noodles, also just rice and eggs and tomatoes fried together, which was incredible.

The air here is so thick that you can't ever see all the way down the street, and it's humid as heck; definitely a weird experience for me, but I'm enjoying it immensely.

We also learned today some Chinese phrases like how to count to 10 and how to say please and thank you. And I also learned the "proper" technique for using a squatty potty... quite fun actually.

Some more fun facts:
- My pillow is a bag of rice.
- Lots of little kids and babies don’t have butts on their pants because they don’t wear or can’t afford to wear diapers.
- It's not really legal to be a missionary.
- It's OK to stare at strangers.
- Jay walking is not at all illegal (In fact people were walking across the freeway!)
- People drive like crazy but they don't get in very many accidents.
- All of the people in this TIP group are amazing.


It's hard to believe that I have only been here for one day!

And tomorrow we see the great wall! My heart is open, my mind is ready and I can't want to see all that there is to see.

5 comments:

Cassandra said...

Yay, China! I hope you're having so much fun! The food sounds great, though I actually have had some of the things you listed before, bahahaha.

Have fun at the Great Wall!!!

love,
Cassandra!

Anonymous said...

so, is china really a fake plastic world?

Anonymous said...

amazing!
i think ive just decided for you that you need to have an entire blog post, or a significant portion of one, dedicated to only engrish :)

that is, if you can find any.
haha

have fun at the great wall!!! and be sure to wave to the satellites.

Anonymous said...

I am glad to hear that you arrived safely,and you are having a lot fun there,abosolutely you are sleeping now,due to 15 time difference.
Enjoy.

Heather said...

Yahooo. Sounds like there's so much to learn!!! Just FYI, the jet lag hits pretty hard the 3rd day. Hope your day is amazing! e-mail me your address ok?
oh, and question: do you have a flickr account?