Reality seems to delay itself when you travel. What you learn beforehand about traveling can never amount to actually going through with it, and when it sets in that you are halfway across the world in a completely new culture, it begins to take your breath away.
We arrived in Beijing in mid-August and stayed there for four days. Arriving in Beijing was amazing, especially since I had never flown before this trip; It’s been quite the baptism by fire for traveling , but I have loved every second of it. Once we arrived at the airport, it was an adventure in itself trying to find exactly where we needed to go. We navigated our way through the airport and met up with our tour guide named Coco. Coco was very friendly and helped us immensely during our first few days in China.
After a lovely introduction to rush hour Beijing traffic on the way back to our hotel, we finally were able to get to our rooms and process what all was going on. There is so much to take in when reality begins to set. We left early every morning in Beijing to go explore tourist sites in Beijing, namely Tienanmen Square, The Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall, The Forbidden City, and a few other notable restaurants in Beijing, as well as an acrobatic show. Coco was with us throughout our tours to explain the importance behind each stop and help us whenever we needed.
As we neared the end of our days touring Beijing, I realized that we were about to launch ourselves even further into Chinese culture once we arrived in Dalian. The flight from Beijing to Dalian was short and scenic, which I enjoyed. Once we arrived to the airport in Dalian, we were able to navigate to the exits, grab our bags, and meet up with Karel.
Karel took us to LNU-MSU and showed us around the campus. The campus here is beautiful; there are many restaurants and shops nearby, as well as public transit. Our rooms are nice, and the weather here has been delightful. We have started classes as well as tutoring, and both are going well.
There is so much to do in Dalian, and I know that this is just the beginning of a wonderful adventure in to a brand new culture.