The First Great Adventure of my Life.

With four hours of sleep under my belt I set out for the airport at 7:00 Friday morning, still not letting my mind realize what I was actually doing. I do believe had I really allowed myself to understand what I was undertaking I would not have set my self on this path at the beginning of the year, self deception played a much larger roll in my actions than I believe courage has. But I didn't really start to grasp exactly what it all meant until I got to Vancouver. I got off the plane, went through customs and found my self in what apparently is the Asian section of the airport. Almost everyone there was speaking some language other than English, and I suddenly felt out of place. But for the moment I just found my gate and sat down till they called my plane to board.

I was dreading the 11 hour flight, and was disappointed that I didn't get a window seat because I was hoping to look down on Beijing as we landed. But the flight was ok. On the way they showed mission impossible 3, which I did not watch due to the lack of enthusiasm for craning my neck over the seat in front of me for 2 hours, but by the time they started showing “take the lead” the Antonio Banderos movie about ballroom dancing in public schools, boredom had won out and I plugged in my ear phones.

As we chased the sun across the pacific ocean I became more and more chronologically separated from my family and friends. And when we finally landed I was 15 hours different. As it turned out I missed nothing by not sitting next to the window. When we landed I could see enough out the window to tell that there was construction going on as far as I could see, which was no more than a mile in any direction because of some of the heaviest smog I've ever seen. At one point after getting to my next gate, I was looking out a window, and thinking I was seeing the moon covered in blood red, I was amazed, but soon found my self disgusted when I found I was looking directly at the sun, and that was all I could see of it through the smog, a faint red disc in the sky.

At this point the separation anxiety really started to kick in, though there was a lot of English writing all over the place, people now were looking at me funny, mostly they were nice, but I really felt strange being the only white person around, but more than that while for everyone there it was 6 pm, for me it was 3 am and “sunny”. When my gate was changed I almost didn't notice cause they only mentioned it in Chinese, luckily I heard some one in line for the gate next to mine say “Jinan” and I followed them. On the plane I immediately buckled my seat and closed my eyes, they were making one announcement after another and I was getting pretty annoyed that they weren't just leaving. I opened my eyes to see what was the hold up and everyone was standing and getting there bags. Next to me I saw a bottle of water and a bag of cookies, apparently I'd fallen asleep and missed the whole flight, though I still have no memory of dozing off or waking up, and looking back I can't imagine how I was comfortable in that seat.

At this point it was 5 am but 8 pm local time. I groggily grabbed my bag and walk off the plane I went to baggage claim and for the first time in all my flying experience there were people standing and waiting to make sure I had proof that my bag was actually mine and I wasn't just taking random luggage.

Leaving the airport at Jinan, I found a man holding a sign that read “Ian Turner” so ignored the young girl asking if I needed a cab and walked over to the man, I was way too tiered to be polite and curious, even if the girl did seem to speak English without an accent.

The first thing that hits you in Jinan is the smell, a mix of cigarette smoke smog and Chinese food. They second thing to hit you will probably be a car. I have never seen anything quite like the drivers in China. The laws seem to almost not exist, the lane lines, barely a blip on the driver's radar, the traffic lights seem more like suggestions rather than any sort of authority. If you don't like your side of the road your free to just hop across the double yellow line and chill till another car comes the other direction, and then you only need to move if your honking and flashing head lights don't persuade him to move first. If there is a crowd of people crossing the street theres no need to stop just slow down and lightly encourage them to move out of your way with a horn and possibly a gentle bump. My driver honked and flashed his lights at everything. Bicyclists, people, stray dogs, large trucks that we barely missed hitting, cop cars we were passing, some times I think he just honked cause he felt like he hadn't made enough noise in the last 30 seconds. It suddenly dawned on me why master Chen had been having so much trouble getting his license in the US.

When I finally got to the university and dealt with checking in to the dorms I was taken to my room. It really is the first place that is entirely mine, that I can decorate, and am completely responsible for. It is small, about the size of a mini trailer home, but it has room for a desk, a bed, a book shelf, a tv, and a bathroom. The bathroom contains a sink a toilet and a shower all in the same space. When I take a shower I have to take out the toilet paper, hang my towel outside, and close the toilet seat. Then when I turn on the water I have to make it quick, the first shower I've taken was sans hot water, though I'm told that at different times of the day it may warm up. The floor in the main room is just a cement floor, no carpeting. And the bed may as well be cement for how hard it is, on my list of things to buy a pillow features high.

Buying things in China is a thrifty mans paradise, today me and some new American friends I made went to lunch, where we had noodles and 2 drinks each for a total of about 5 bucks between the 3 of us. And I was told that that is actually a bit spendy. Later I bought a 20 oz soda for about 30 American cents off a street vendor. It really is quite amazing.

Finaly the bad news. Because for registration I need to have a medical examination, and for some reason I cannot find the original copy of the document that was filled out my by doctor, tomorrow I am going to the doctors, a Chinese doctors, I have to get in a taxi and get to the hospital with out speaking Chinese, then have a doctor who may or may not speak English give me a physical. I am not looking forward to it. But at least in the future I'll be more experienced if I ever need to go to the doctors for a serious reason.

So thats my adventure so far, I have two more days before I start classes, I think, so it's 2 more days of hanging out in china, I'm looking forward to it.