My Room With A (Spectacular) View

Hello Everyone out there!

I am officially writing from my new apartment. I can't believe I have my own apartment on another continent! It is still scary and overwhelming, but pretty awesome at the same time. I think that's how I'm going to be living this year. It's scary and overwhelming, but at the end of the day, I know I am lucky to be able to have this opportunity at the most perfect time in my life to be doing this.

I had a lazy morning in the hotel sleeping in, watching an episode of "Firefly" because it's fun to hear Nathan Fillion botching up Mandarin too, and packing up my suitcases. I still can't believe how much my Mom helped me stuff into those bags!

I took a ridiculous taxi cab from the hotel to the Media Village. I had given written address in Chinese to the driver and he just started talking really loudly and I just kept pointing to the address. He took his sweet time getting there. He stopped to make phone calls and went on the highway. I've taken the same ride before from my school to the hotel by taxi and it is really just a clear one street kind of drive. Some of the local teachers and EF had warned me that some taxi drivers will take advantage of people who do not speak Chinese, and I think this happened to me. I just don't see how he couldn't know where the media village is because the neighborhood houses thousands of people.

I spent the afternoon starting to unpack my suitcases. Kelsey... If you are reading this the green skirt/table cloth you gave me was the first thing out! I went back to the Lotus to pick up sheets that ended up being too small. I then spent so much time wandering around the grocery section. I picked up the smallest bad of rice I could find which is still pretty hefty. I'll be eating that up for at least three months I predict. Finding vegetables was pretty easy, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if there was any soy milk. I found some cartons that said "less lactose" but that was as close as I got. I ended up picking up a carton that was actually in the refrigeration section. I just hope it isn't whole milk! I went to go pay and the cashier looked at me funny when she picked up my bag of potatoes and a bag of lettuce. She kept asking me a question that I couldn't answer, and then she just looked at me and threw them away. I was sad because I wanted both items, but there's that pesky language barrier again! It was a very, very long walk back to the complex! I think I will have to be like the French and buy enough groceries for just a day or two because I do not want to make a walk like that again.

My sweet landlord couple and her younger brother stopped by my place at seven this evening to hook up my Internet. It took the four of us, and an English speaking translator on the phone and about forty-five minutes for us to figure out how to configure my little Mac with a new Asian configuration! I am so thankful to have the Internet though.

I made a pretty awesome dinner of rice and a stir fry of eggplant, tomatoes, tofu and mushrooms. The potatoes would have been nice, but it still turned out ok. I have discovered dark chocolate covered pocky, too, and it has rocked my world!

I think I need to go stare out of my windows in amazement and day dream for awhile some more... At least until the new episode of "Glee" is done downloading. A girl has to have her priorities!