And We Arrive....

Chessin and I arrived today in Nanjing after more than 24 hours en route. Luckily the plane from Toronto (about a 14 hour ride) had great in-flight entertainment, like a Japanese movie that I think was called "Smiley's" - it's about a retired tap dancer who coaches a losing hockey team. Winning stuff. Luckily though, the plane was pretty much empty and we each got three seats to our selves to stretch out, which made the trip bearable. When we finally got to Shanghai, and made it through customs (for some reason they put us through the "diplomat's" line, in which they didn't really check anything or ask any questions...), we were met by a nice guy from the university named something, and another student like us, but from Japan, also named something (I have enough difficulty with English names...). From there we got on a bus and made the four hour drive from Shanghai to Nanjing.

The Chinese highways we were on went through pretty much an Industrial desert - although I did get to see the Shanghai skyline, which looks kind of like that city-planet in star wars - it doesn't stop. It's seemed like it was 50 miles of pure city - New York downtown quality in size, stature, and aesthetics. However, after Shanghai, there were just a lot of ads with funny English translations, stuff like "A wonderful you meets when laughing," and factories spewing smoke. Most of the buildings in this area, even apartment buildings, are pretty low quality, made of what looks like wood covered in a thin layer of cement.

We made one stop on our road trip to Nanjing, when someone who shall remain nameless and is also my brother politely asked the driver, "should we make a bathroom break?" and proceeded to sprint into the bathroom at a supermarket. The market, which was the first real taste of any Chinese store that wasn't "duty free" (in both senses of the word) had a bunch of fruits and vegetables I didn't recognize, and a giant rest-stop style bathroom - although I wasn't in there for very long as the bus was leaving soon.

Anyways, we got to Nanjing around 8:00, and got up to our dorm. The city looks beautiful, although it's hard to tell in the dark. There are some pretty soft wooden boards with sheets on them in our room, about 1 foot apart, a T.V., a fridge, a safe, and, something I've always wanted, a bathroom where you can simultaneously sit on the toilet and take a shower. Think of the possibilities!

Chessin and I took a quick walk through Nanjing, got a great meal at a Korean restaurant for about 10 bucks, and came back to the room. We're now watching, what I can only guess, is the "dabalabguabalaba" show - actually a show (or at least an episode of a show) about Chinese tongue-twisters. Like I need that. So far I've been able to ask some good questions to people, and have them understand me. Stuff like "Can we go to our room now?", "Where is the bank?", "Where is a good restaurant?". Unfortunately, it appears my Chinese is limited to questions, because I didn't understand a single answer anyone gave me, although I recognized occasional words... it's a start...

zai jian!