It occurred to me as we leave each of our stays how attached we become
to the ambassadors in each of the cities. A few nights ago, I realized
what it was: The Stockholm Syndrome! We are entirely at their mercy here
in these cities; in a sense, we are held captive to their ability to
understand Chinese language and Chinese culture. It is an odd feeling.
**
We arrived in Beijing at 7:05 AM. All's well -- except:
In the Xi'an
train station, I stood up and left my backpack on the seat I was
occupying. Yep, you guessed it: I lost it. In it was the computer Shawn
lent me (sorry Shawn!), my Nook E-reader, my cellphone from America and
the two chargers for the cell phones I am using here in China. Dang!
Fortunately, the group's money and my passport was strapped to me, so I
didn't leave that behind.
The train ride to Beijing was a "Z" train; it went straight through,
only slowing down at stations. That means the group got a little better
sleep than the train into Xi'an.
Our tour-guide, Mark, met us at the Beijing station and led us to a van
waiting in the parking lot. It was about a 45 ride to our hotel and A
LOT easier than trying to find cabs or take the metro/bus system with
all of our bags.
Mark, our guide, told us that the other GFU group was leaving today.
He was going to leave us after dropping us off at our hotel and go over
to where they were staying then help lead them back to the airport. One
of our team members, Nick, went with him to surprise that crew. Then
Nick will make his way back to a famous food and shopping street near
our hotel an we will meet him there. He will pick up the other GFU group's metro/bus passes for us to use during our stay here.
Jiateng and Min will be arriving today around 3 PM. They are the
young women from here in China who lived with us during their Spring
semester at Fox. They will hang out with us and travel to the Great
Wall, the Summer Palace and the Olympic Center, and join us for lunch
of Beijing (Peking) Duck, which will occur on Wednesday. Tomorrow, we
will go to the Forbidden City and Tienanmen Square and the Temple of
Heaven. Thursday, we will try our hand at bargaining (Too expensive:
"tài guì le") in the famous Silk and Pearl Districts. At some point we
will be going to the acrobatics show that is
famous here.
This
hotel is the most "American/Western" we have been too. A buffet
breakfast comes with the room so we filled up on that today: eggs,
bacon, toast with jam, hot American coffee and fried rice! We are easing
out of full cultural immersion on into tourism and then off to America.
We leave noon on May 25th and arrive at noon on May 25th! We all are
wondering what it will feel like to travel, suspended in time.
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