Back home in Baoding

I made it back to Baoding without any problems. I'm really glad I broke up my domestic and international flights-I stayed in Seattle Tuesday night and then flew to Beijing on Wednesday. The flight wasn't full, so I had 2 seats to myself. Even so, it was still too long of a flight. I'm glad I brought my own food (turkey, cheese, crackers, and applesauce) or I would have been starving and grouchy. Plane food is horrible and Chinese plane food is even worse. I stayed in Beijing for a couple of nights and Curtis and Katie came to pick me up and help me haul my suitcases back to Baoding.

For entertainment, there was a fight at the train station in Beijing. Fighting is rare in China because they're so into "saving face" and losing your temper causes you to lose face. The only 2 fights I've seen have both been at train stations. I think it's because they're so disorganized-it's like herding cattle. The trains were full and it took us forever to hail a cab in Baoding. Everyone is coming back to university, so it was chaos at the train station here too, but we made it. I'm unpacked, but have junk strewn out everywhere-I'll work on that tomorrow.

I think I'm really going to like my class schedule this semester. The first half I have sophomores Writing I two days a week and History of the English language with juniors two days a week, which means 3 day weekends. The second half of the semester, I'm really spoiled. I only have Newspaper and Magazines with juniors on Tuesday and Thursday, which means 4 day weekends-I plan to do some traveling-Shanghai and the Three Gorges Dam are on the list and I may go visit Peter's hometown.

Thanks again for everyone hanging out with me while I was back-it was so good to see everyone!