As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end, so we had to bid good ol' Beijing (and other white people) goodbye and head off to our new home till JULY. We boarded the high speed train to Weifang with one of the program directors who was coming with to say hello to the Administrator at our school.

It was a pretty easy trip, about 4 hours on the train in seats that are more comfortable than a lot of airplane seats. You can see a sweet pic of us on the train below. 

Sweet because Chad is eating a delicious banana.


When we got to Weifang our school took us to a place called Dicos. They were so sweet! They weren't sure how well we would adjust to Chinese life, so they took us to a fast food restaurant that served fried chicken sandwiches. They were pretty yummy and I'm sure we'll be back. Especially since I've been jonsing for some fried chicken lately.

Now you'll get the lamest ever virtual tour of our apartment. These were all taken pretty much when we got here, we have been slowly going through the rooms, cleaning them out, weeding out junk, reorganizing stuff, making it our own, and putting our stuff all over. I didn't get a picture of the bathroom yet, it's kinda gross (as in not clean) so we won't share that till it's a lot cleaner. 

So when you first walk in here's what you'll see... a huge, mostly empty room. Seriously, the only things in this room are the table, a chair and our shoes.


This is the first door on your left when you walk in. It's the spare bedroom. It's not very exciting. Also, I doubt we'll get any visitors that will stay here...


Here's our office, it is next door to the spare room. It's had a pretty solid overhaul, but right now you can see the dinosaur computer they are loaning us and our two desks.


Attached to our office room is the drying room. There are no dryers in China, so whenever we wash anything it goes into this sweet drying room.


Here's our bedroom. Pretty exciting huh? We have now put every single blanket we own underneath that top blanket in an effort to add just a bit of cushion to the box spring that is our "mattress". 


This is our "closet". Good thing we were allowed only one suitcase each, so we don't really have much clothing to fill it.


Here's the kitchen. Counter-clock wise from the window you'll find our "stove" (hot plate and rice cooker) then the refrigerator/ freezer combo, microwave, toaster oven and our washing machine. For our clothes...



This is our living room. We haven't spent much time in here besides to get water (from the water cooler that does not actually cool water) because to be honest it's not super comfortable. Also there is a huge dorm right out that window so I feel very exposed. When you spend all day being stared at while walking around campus, you kinda want some privacy in your apartment. 



So the first week was a bit crazy, we did a lot of stuff with our liaison, like a crazy medical test where they did a blood test, an EKG, an ultrasound, a urine test and an x-ray (all using colonial-era medical equipment, seriously, I am not sure where they even found that stuff, but it is probably more valuable as antiques than medical equipment). The x-ray tech told us (through our liaison) that they stopped using this type of x-ray machine in the US because it was too unsafe. So I am thinking he probably took a couple years off our life from that... so thanks China!

We also ate in the school cafeteria. It has been an interesting experience. On Friday we went and it was good, Saturday we went and had meatballs. Later that day I got violently ill and didn't eat again till Monday. And on Monday I had a piece of bread. For dinner I had a banana and some rice. I was terrified of eating because I didn't want to get sick again. Tuesday we both didn't have class so we decided to head to McDonald's. Say what you will about it, but one thing I know is they make it pretty idiot proof. I think it may be impossible to get food poisoning there. Having said that, I'm sure someone out there knows someone who did, but I figured I would be able to eat McDonald's. Nothing on that tray would remind me of what made me lose the contents of my stomach. 

Here's a picture of our Big Mac, Spicy Chicken, fries and Coke Zero. I was in heaven even though I still wasn't at 100%.


I felt so good about it I thought we should get a McFlurry. It was Strawberries and Oreos... it's a great combo, I would recommend asking for it at your local McDonald's. I am sure they can do it as it was simply the strawberry mix from the sundae added to an Oreo McFlurry.

Amazing. Small. But amazing.
We then ventured on to the RT Mart. The RT Mart is supposed to be a good grocery store where you can get cheaper food. The RT Mart is sooo much more than that. It's like a Target on steroids. You can buy a computer, a refrigerator, eggs, china, a scooter and peanut butter in the same place. It's located in a mall and right outside is a climbing wall. Kinda random but we are learning such is China.


Scooters for sale!
 So this store will always and forever have a special place in my heart because when we headed in I was feeling pretty homesick/ miserable (food poisoning, rough lessons, don't know what people are saying) and I walk in and what is playing but an American song!! It made my life.



Anyway, as always it was quite an adventure shopping here. If you look closely you can spot the white guy in the madness that is buying eggs. They seriously seem to sell these like they're rationed. You can take as many bags as you want, but they bag and pick the number of eggs inside your bag. I totally got an angry word said at me (I assume) when I took this picture. I guess you can't take pictures of egg distribution in China...