Ni Hao- China Day 1

Ni Hao America!!

I am alive and am in Bengbu, China. Its whatever. Ha kidding, this place is insane!! It has been one LLLOOONNNGGG day but i am here and alive and living in China. Weird, I never knew i would be saying that!! This is crazier then I could have even begun to imagine. This is going to be an incredible experience I can already tell. So much has already happened!!

Lets start from the beginning.

On Feb. 9th I flew into LAX leaving behind my home, good o'le Mesa. (You will be greatly missed!!) From LA we flew into Korea which was about an 11 hour flight. I slept pretty much the whole time thanks to some good sleeping pills, thanks mama!! The food was terrible on the plane, but hey its an experience!! After landing in Korea we flew into Shanghai which was about another 2 hour flight. Our cute guide that will be with us the whole time during this trip was at the airport waiting for us. Her name is Mary, she is the bomb. SHe knows a lot of english so she is our translator. Idk what we would do without her!! She is adorable! After we met up with Mary we jumped onto a bus and started our 7 hour drive over to our city, Bengbu. We stopped in Shanghai and ate lunch, which was my first real Chinese meal. We had jiaozi (dumplings) which were really good. My chinese is staring out good already! It tasted a lot like pot stickers. The chinese people just kinda stared at us which was funny. They are all super nice tho so it is good! While on our drive over to Bengbu, we experienced a lot of honking. We soon caught on that Chinese people honk at everything. We were constantly switching lanes and honestly almost running over little cars. It was scary!! All the cars are a lot like ours at home, i see lots of VW vans and saw lots of Audi's... It is funny!! Our bus driving was hacking his brains out, it was a crack up! We were all so confused at what he was doing. He would hawk a loogie honestly every 5 mins ha!! It was nasty! But hey whatever works right?! Another one of our drivers was parked in the back just sleeping on a seat for most of the time!

Funny stuff! It was fun to get to know the girls tho, we will have a blast!!

We finally arrived to our city and pulled up to our school. There were about 10 chinese students waiting there for us to greet us and to help us take our luggage up to our rooms. We are on the 6th floor with no elevator...goodie. It is also FREEEZZIINNGG in our room, the Chinese dont exactly believe in indoor heating. I am typing right now with frozen fingers. I am freezing, but am bundled up in jackets and lots of socks so I will be ok! The room is a lot better then i had expected. I do have a bed and it isnt just cement floors. We are gunna decorate it cute so we will make it more homey. I share a room with a super fun girl named Holly who is from Vegas. We are def gunna party it up in here! The city is beautiful, i am excited to be able to see more! I am about 15 hours different in time compared to home (AZ) so time zones may be a bit of a challenge but I will figure something out. This is crazy stuff!!

This is going to be an amazing experience. I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to do this. It will def be a life changer! I will keep you posted on my life as I am embarking on this incredible journey. Who knew life existed outside of Mesa :). I miss home already but know this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. It will be good, oh so good. I love you friends and family, thank you so much for all your support!! Keep reading so I can continue to fill you in on my life and help you to feel a part of it!!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone :)

xoxo Lex

My Groupie

Bus ride to Bengbu

Shanghai

No dryers in China. Hang dry all the way. :)

Mm hmmm. Who knows.

First Chinese Meal. Dumplings.

Mary!!

My room!

Ps- Did i tell you it is freezing?! It is awful!!! My body is convulsing! hahahah!! Ahhhh!