Hours spent packing: a few
Number of times we watched the same bags go ‘round the carousel before acknowledging that they were never going to magically turn into our luggage: many
Katrina and I arrived safe and luggageless in Beijing on Saturday, where we met Julie and Mr. Mi at the airport after filing a report with a very helpful lady in charge of "property irregularities." The four of us took a bus out to a hotel where we met Nina, another Carleton graduate who had been working in Fenyang this summer, and we all had dinner together before collapsing in our respective beds. We were taking a sleeper bus to Fenyang Sunday night, so during the day we walked down to Tiananmen Square before checking out of our hotel (Nina was kind enough to let us camp out in her room until it was time to go catch the bus - you can see in the picture that we were a bit tired), and then Katrina and I found a shopping center where we managed to buy a couple pairs of underwear (I will never again neglect to pack a change of clothes in my carry-on). Happily, we have since heard that our luggage has been found and should be delivered to the school pretty soon (I am excited).
Now we are in Fenyang, and the apartment seems huge. We need to go pick up some stuff, and it can be quirky, like when we heard a gurgling sound and water came spurting out of a hole in the wall (we think that there was some work being done on the pipes; anyway, it’s stopped now), but it seems great, generally.
