First post from Beijing!

Well I finally made it in last night after traveling for many hours... Beijing is SO big and I can't even believe that I'm here, it feels so weird waking up in a hotel and realizing that you're halfway across the world. Last night when I got into my hotel room I kept hearing popping sounds and didn't realize what it was until I looked out my window, and I saw fireworks just everywhere across the city. Happy New Years, everyone. It was a wild sight, for sure.

Last night at the airport I did what everyone told me to do, walk to the taxi stand and get into a two-color taxi, but that's when I had a bit of trouble. I showed my taxi driver the address and he said to me in Chinese that he didn't know where that was, and asked what the name of the hotel was. I didn't know the Chinese name, and I couldn't hardly understand a thing he was saying, so I told him sorry a bunch of times in Chinese and that I couldn't understand. We found it after like 40 minutes of driving and I'm pretty sure I paid way too much but I don't care, I was so tired and ready to just get somewhere that I was seemingly familiar with (the hotel) that I just gave him 100元 and he gave me 10 back.

Either way I made it, and took a bunch of pictures which I will post later. Right now it is about 9:30A on the 20th, and I'm going to go throw on a jacket and get my stuff together and go wander around, because I have nothing really to do for the next two days and want to go see what it's like! Eeek.

孔宁