Beijing

I have been in Beijing for almost two weeks now, and things are finally getting easier...my friend Audrey and I got off to a rocky start! Somehow, we thought we could just show up in Beijing and find an apartment immediately. This was not the case! Audrey had just gotten back from a long trip to the US and I had just returned from Germany, so I think both of us were distracted and din't plan properly before coming to Beijing! Four agonizing days later, we found an apartment, but this was not the end of the fiasco...Our apartment is brand new, we are the first ones to live in it, and I am not sure our landlord was quite ready to have tenants. Almost everyday some little thing has needed to fixed or finished or dropped off at our place. Also, as foreigners, we had to register our address with the police at two different police stations and provide them with a copy of our lease and our landlord had to come with us. There was a slight issue when I didn't know how to write the characters of my new Chinese name, but the landlord figured it out, luckily. Every day since we moved in, the landlord has been telling us that the next day the internet would be installed. I was beginning to thinkit would never happen...but guess what...today is "the next day". Yay! I am so happy to have wireless internet in our apartment! Now I can be reunited with my beloved computer and can catch up on all my emails and long overdue blogging. I can't wait to run home from school tomorrow and peruse the internet at my leisure in the comfort of my own room! (Yes, I know, my attachment to the internet is sick...but what can I say, I am far from my family and friends and lately the internet is the most consistant thing in my life.)