Made it to China!

Made it to China! We were in Beijing for 3 days. We barely slept because there was so much to do there and not nearly enough time. We flew into Beijing of Sunday morning and on Monday morning we were on the Great Wall of China! I literally just had to sit down on the Great Wall and think for a little while. Less than a week ago I was in India and less than two months before that I was in theAlps. It just doesn’t seem real. I’m more than half way done now. I have internet, but a lot of things are blocked. Facebook is completely blocked. Google works, but restricts all sorts of searches. If you search for something that is against the government your account gets flagged and it restricts your searches even more. Even the one girl who is from China on my program is afraid to talk badly about the government. She says that regardless of where you are in the world, you never know who may be listening. Last night we took an overnight train from Beijing to Changsha. I’m in a hotel tonight, but tomorrow afternoon we move into our homestays. Han - Reesa is my homestay partner. Reesa goes to Colby College which is pretty funny that we ended up being assigned to the same family. I’ll be staying with this family for three weeks. It will be so nice to be in one place for such a long period of time. I’m studying at Central South University (CSU) which has 60,000 students (quite the change from St. Mike’s). It’s a little weird to be back on a college campus, but it’s nice to be surrounded by college students that aren’t just from America. There are huge banners all over the school welcoming us. Everyone is so excited that we are here. Barely anyone speaks English here which makes ordering meals out quite the experience. We went to a night market the other night and a bunch of people ate scorpion and crickets and all sorts of other exotic meat…I stuck to chicken. A lot of people working at the night market would ask “country? Country?“ When we told them America they would all yell “Obamaaaa!“ Some guys working even said that they’d give us free food if we kissed them. We passed up that offer, but it was still pretty funny.

Last night I moved into my homestay. My hostfamily is two grandparents, a mom, a dad, and a 12 year old brother. My hostmom, Ling, is an English professor at CSU. My hostdad is also a professor at CSU. Everyone speaks English except the grandparents. My hostparents actually lived in Columbus, Ohio for a year and just came back in September. I'll keep you posted as I get more settled in. I never imagined that I would be so thankful for my own bed, a closet (to unpack my clothes!), and a washing machine. I have internet, but it works only sometimes. Facebook, Yahoo, and my blog are all blocked. If you want to e-mail me I think the best bet is on my Saint Mike's account awhittemore@smcvt.edu Don’t know when I’ll have internet again so….HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELLA! Can’t believe you’re 10 years old. Love you <3