The arrival

So many things have happened in the past few hours that I don't know where to start from. My flight in general was pretty good, although the plane left JFK about an hour late. Therefore, I got to Beijing around 7:00. The new Beijing airport terminal is really amazing. At first I got a bit lost, since I had to walk a lot more than last year. Then I realized now there's a small train you have to take to get your baggage and get through customs (customs, by the way, is much simpler now, since there are no forms to fill out and nothing else to do if you have nothing to declare). But anyway, I liked the airport, and it really is proof of how Beijing is changing so rapidly.

After getting my stuff, I went through the exit where there already was a group of HBA students and teachers. We waited at the airport for about an hour or two and then together took a bus to our dorms at Beijing Language and Culture University（北京语言大学）. This year, housing apparently has been sort of an issue for HBA. All fourth year students (me included) were put in a separate building from the rest of the HBA students, due to lack of rooms at the Conference Center （会议中心）. I don't know yet how I feel about that. There are a few advantages of living in this new building. Our rooms are much bigger than those at the conference center, and we're closer to the subway. Here are some pictures of my room:

On the other hand, there are a handful of disadvantages, the most important one being that we're isolated from the rest of the HBA students and that we have to take a long walk to get to our classrooms. We're not the only ones having problems, though. Apparently there are some students at the Conference Center who have to share a room with another student for the first few days.

Well, all of that happened last night. Today has been a productive day so far. I met with a two classmates to eat breakfast and go shopping. Among the things I bought was a Chinese cell phone! Buying a cell phone in China was a bit complicated, not only because of language difficulties but also the way phones work in China. For the first hour I bought my phone, it didn't work, so I had to go back to the place I bought it and somehow it got fixed. I was able to get the phone for 400 RMB, which is cheaper than I expected. (And my phone number doesn't have any unlucky 4's!!!)

That's how everything stands so far. I'm really excited to be back in Beijing, and I'll post again when anything new comes up.