First Day in China

We have arrived. I can't get to the English version of the blog software, so if this post comes out all mangled, it's because the interface is in Chinese. Suffice it to say, however, that I now know what it's like to be completely illiterate. Where's my tricycle and sippy cup?

It was not easy to get here. When we showed up at the airport on Monday, we learned that United canceled the first leg of our flight through Dulles because of a light drizzle. So, they put us on a flight to Chicago, and assured us that we would make it to O'Hare in time. We did not. In fact, our flight left at 12:40, and when we ran up to the gate at 12:45 and asked them to let us on the plane (which was still sitting at the gate), the folks at the counter asked us "what class is your ticket?" Seeing that we were flying "Economy Plus," they sent us to the customer service desk. After all was said and done, we made it out 24 hours later than expected after two trips to the customer service counter, three hours on the phone with United, many failed attempts to get upgraded to business class, a night spent with our friends Rachel and Ted, and a few tears--mostly mine.

The flight was mostly uneventful. We've now seen the Arctic Ocean and Siberia from 35,000 feet, three babies screaming in perfect unison, and a terrible Sandra Bullock movie called "Premonition." We've also had Chinese food for an in-flight meal, including yummy noodles. And we touched down safely amidst the heat of Beijing and its efforts to get ready for the Olympics. It's one thing to read a three-page article on the 2008 Olympics in the New York Times; it's another to see the buildings pictured in that article with your own eyes, three days later.

Our guide, Miss Han Liran, met us at "Capital City Airport." On the cab ride from the airport, sandwiched in the back seat with Katie and our luggage, she told us that her dream has always been to give foreigners their "Chinese" names. This is a necessity, since Chinese does not have an alphabetic written language, so we started working through various words that use the sound "Schwa" in order to figure out a new family name. We have it down to three options: "Stone," "History," and "teacher," all of which use the same "schwa" sound, but different characters and tonalities. I'm tempted to figure out what word the Chinese use to refer to the bird species "swallow," since that's what Schwalb actually means in German. But we'll see.

Miss Han is a great help, and we are grateful for her assistance. She took us to see a few apartments yesterday, but we didn't yet find anything to our liking. Today we make our second attempt, and we'll probably also try to get set up for cellular phones and a bank account. Right now, though we're headed off to breakfast (only 15 yuan!)--I see from the room service menu that choices include "Peanuts and Coffee Smoothie." Yum!