The First Few Days

Hey Y'all. We finally got our blog up and running sorry it took a few days. Its about 7:00am friday morning here and im having coffee and watching a group of 100+ perform 'ti che'. Well let me fill everyone in on our first few days.
We arrived tuesday afternoon and hit the ground running. Maggie (our boss) met us at the airport and took us straight to our apartment. The apartments themselves are about 500 sq. feet, so we better like our roommates b/c theres no hiding in this place. But really, there quite nice. Our apartment building is 45 floors high and there are 9 buildings. The main floor is 5 floors off street level and you have to use a key card to enter and leave. Security here is great, so no worries there. Below the apartments are a grocery store, mall, and medical center. Which has provided us with every thing we need, while also giving us that much needed sense of home. Also included in the apartments are a pool (its huge and beautiful), clubhouse, gym, and workout facilities. The clubhouse provides community activities such as ti che, pottery, dance, and others. But those are the ones SB and I want to do... SO all said, the apartments are just fine.
The city itself is amazing and a bit overwhelming. The public transportation system, called the 'octopus' is fantastic. Although for newcomers like us, it is not easy to navigate so we are having to learn by trial and error. The transit system itself is clean, well lit at night, and very safe. Also, due to fear of swine flu, cleanliness is a major issue, therefore all transit vehicles are cleaned EVERY hour. So that's a relief. SB and I quickly learned though, that their sense of cleanliness applies to all aspects of life. Our initial impression is that the people are very orderly and disciplined. I think it comes from living in these fun sized apartments!
The other people in our group are alot of fun. Our initial fears of meeting/making new friends were quickly squashed. We have now made friends from London, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. Meeting these people greatly helped SB and I overcome the initial culture shock and homesickness. The first day we were a mess, but now we've got the hang of things and we're doing all right.
Now that we've settled in, we have begun to notice some really interesting aspects of Chinese life. For example, at local restaurants, hot tea is provided to each customer upon arrival. As we quickly learned this is not to drink, rather; the hot tea is used to clean silverware, and table dishes. So as you can imagine, we were completely grossed out. Thankfully, this is a custom, and not really a sanitary technique. They believe that because the waitress handled all of your dishes, you should wash away impurities with the hot tea! We have also noticed that the local people are warm and hospitable. We have yet to experience the stares and gawks that we initially thought we would get. Instead, we seem to receive kind smiles. Yesterday SB and another girl were asked to be in a picture. A family asked the girls to join their children in a pic!

SO, if there had to be negatives at this point we'd have to say the food. Maggie has been very kind and has taken us out to eat the last three nights. Each time we go to a local restaurant and enjoy, food so spicy that it 'wonderfully numbs the mouth.' That's how they describe the sensation. But, thanks to our grocery store, we're good to go. The smells of the city are at times harsh. Locals still buy meat and seafood from street markets. These items are left to sit in the city heat all day, so the smell is a bit rough.
Well sorry this one was long but we needed to catch everyone up. Please save this blog to your favorites and follow our experience through it! hope the name is not not to corny but i thought it was catchy.... go to www.theorientexperience.blogspot.com

but im going to invite you all to join so you should receive easy-to-access news up dates from us
Love, Tripp and SB
ps. sorry for any misspellings