Day 2

Well, after my first day, I have to say thing Nanjing is 不错 (not bad) ！I think it is pretty a charming city.  Not quite as chill as Qingdao (I think I just like seaside life in general), but still my overall first impression is that I will have a good stay here.  This morning I woke at 7:00 to fireworks outside my window. Ha – yes fireworks at 7 in the morning.  Instead of getting upset at my disturbed slumber, I just told myself… “well, how nice of my welcoming committee to plan fireworks for me!”  LOL It turns out that today is actually a holiday.  元宵佳节?  I think it is the lantern festival which comes after the New Year?  Maybe I am wrong, I will ask tomorrow!

Today my To-Do list looked like this:  1. Find Flagship Office 2. Obtain cellphone with translation application 3. Find apartment & talk with landlord.  So I bundled up while listening to王力宏 ”Wang Lihong” to get in “Chinese mode” (Nanjing is C-c-c-c-coooolllddd right now!!!) / I’m talk’n boots and beanie weather. Anyways, it turns out that the Flagship office is literally right next to my apartment!  In the elevator I ran in to none other than the Miss Carolyn Moss (Cali for short) who is the other ASU flagship student here.  We were soooo happy to see each other for all of about 3 minutes and then she went off to do her own thing, hopefully I will see her tomorrow.  The office is small, but there is a briefing table with six chairs, a copy machine, Ivy Goldstein (An American who is a coordinator) and her assistants.

Right away I introduced myself, and met the other students: Luke, Jiten, & Natalie.  I know Jiten from Qingdao 1.5 years ago, but other than that, the kids are all pretty chill!  10:30 am, Ivy’s Chinese assistant 束方银 (shu-fangyin) went with me to show me where the electronics store was.  He was so nice! Easy to converse with, and he got me lunch!  =)  My first China meal 西红柿炒蛋fried egg-tomato dish and rice, simple way to ease into Chinese food.  When we got to the cell phone store, he called his friend to help us decide which retailer was best (friends, this is why 关系 “connections” are important!)  I LOVED my new phone.  It is a little Nokia smart phone.  Perfect! It was about 1080 rmb, plan included.  I can even go on Facebook with it.  However – now it is 12:38 am and my cell isn’t working (it won’t turn on and won’t charge, and I’ve tried every outlet in my room).  So yeah, I know - a lot of hype over nothing right? Now you know how I feel.  I have to go back tomorrow; I think I am destined to have really bad luck with cell phones in general.

Later this afternoon, I went with Jiten to talk to a real estate agent.  That was a very interesting experience.  She wouldn’t show us all of the options because there were only so many that she considered “suitable” for foreigners.  In this situation, a lot of U.S. people would be insulted; simply because someone else is taking the liberty to tell you what they think is best for you.  Here, it is considered polite because she obviously cares enough to not waste our time.   Luckily the only one shown was quite nice.  Today I also called my own landlord （房东-landlord), and I will meet with him tomorrow morning at 9:00 am – I need to get to bed soon!

Suffering greatly from jet lag this evening, I came back to my room.  Because it is so cold I kept my jacket on inside, stole the comforter from the other bed in my room, made coffee and took a nap!  Still cold, I went down to the little food stand downstairs and bought spicy 方便面 (literally translates to “convenient noodles,” - just instant ramen) It helped!  Jiten and Natalie came to get me for a beer to mark the beginning of our stay together. Later Luke joined with his roommate Hannah from John Hopkins University.  I'm back now and just showered; I am going to review the words from my notes today before bed.  Tomorrow is another busy day    ;)