Report to campus: Traffic Nightmare

Sweet Jesus of all that is holy. The card (THANK YOU Uncle Ru) to Peking University was one clusterfuck. Traffics in the morning are feast for the eyes. It's CLEARLY a red light for us, but hey there are no rules apparently or no one has morlas in their being so then people simply keep going as...the green light flashes for the drivers across from us. So you have buses, cars, and several semis, a cement truck all stuck in this traffic explosion. Oh factor in bikers, pedestrians and scooterists just flashing by. Uncle Ru had about three cigarettes during the 2-3 hours in traffic. I never realized how vast Beijing was until I got stuck in traffic.
We live in the south and Peking Uni is in the northest part of the city. The outskirts basically. Damn it power shut down. (the lights just went out as I was writing this down in my journal)

Slowly we crept up into Shao Yuan after a flash of the passport at he campus west gate. There is still mass confusion on campus with international students swaring the center. Neither of us had a clue as to where to go. I got herded into the third building, but Ru realized that this wasn't the right place for registartion. Well he was right. I was surrounded by half the population of South Korea. Namely from Seoul.

If you think the Chinese government is corrupt, campus beauracracy is outrageous. Here's a trip. Speak in Chinese and nothing will get done
Speak in English and you save 15 mintes of the time you just wasted by speaking in Mandarin. Moral of the story: English is a good skill.

I unlocked room 505 to discover a generic hotel set up. Towerls and bathrooms neatly set with tea cups side by side. The maid comes in at 9am. So I sorta have privacy. Wow the floor is a gross infestation. Slowly i Unpakced and hor by the hour my group began to enter the hallway with jetlagged faces. Since we had the whole day to do absolutley nothing. THere was a party in the hall. Amy came by since laundry services are expensive @ FX (Fururama Xpress Hotel). A trip to Carrefour came to play. Never shopping there again. It's another sea of people.

As the day went by CIEE students arrived to Shaoyuan. Still no sign of my new roomate. I was anxious to meet...Sarah Stern. She seems nice from the passport photo. All our headshots are pinned to the CIEE office bulliten board. I hope I won't get pyscho Kristen part II. Kristen was my roomate from frosh year. Was I scared of her? yes yes I was.

Diner came around. Hot Pot across the street with 20 ppl. I coudln't stand the sight of us. IT felt like a big target painted on our ass from our behavior. Plates were broken, excess amounts of food was orderd, but hey I got acquainted with some girls. Lisa for example, is my Korean sista. Homegirl rules. Get this she also goes to Knox College. Just like LIz. Many discussions/anectdotes were spilled during hot pot.
"it helped open our pores..feel that,, but this isn't date food." said Lisa.

An hour later Lisa mentioned how spicy her lips felt from the soup broth.

"MMM this IS good date food actually." she cracks me up.

Dinner ended. Back to room 505. Still no sign of Sarah. Maybe I wished ill will when I joked w/Lisa "I don't mind having a roomate JK JK"
FINALLY
around 10 pm the hallway was greeted by more newcomers. I was thrilled and hugged Sarah. She began unpacking a bit, but was a little under the weather from the jet lag and flying in an icebox. Orientation demain!