In Kunming

I'm here!!! After successfully navigating my way across the country yesterday (or rather letting myself be shepherded from friendly English speaker to friendly English speaker), I have arrived in Kunming. I can't believe I'm really here--I first stumbled across the wikipedia entry on Kunming probably almost 2 years ago, in sort of a daydream/future potential planning session. I remember it seemed like it would be a cool place because it's small-ish, near great sights, and far away from everything else. But never really considered it because it's way the heck out there, and why/how would an American student end up there? But now it's happened. Wow.

So far it's looking good: rainy and cool these last two days (still quite the novelty), which after boiling in Shanghai means it is living up to its reputation for great weather. Which it definitely has--I think during my entire planning process for the semester, literally every Chinese person I talked to, when I told them I was going to Kunming, would say, "Ooohh, it has great weather. I haven't ever been there, but it's supposed to be very pleasant. You will have a good time."

This morning I registered for classes. Probably the most exciting part was going down to the street to the bank and taking out 6200 yuan in cash to pay the registration fee (I had to use the special line for "elderly, handicapped, pregnant, and foreigners." Nice). That's about $1000, but it goes way further here: a bottle of water (the other thing I've bought so far) is 1 yuan (< 20 cents). So I had to cram 62 100 yuan bills into my wallet--it didn't really close--and walk back to the school to cough it up.

Besides that, mostly I've been hanging out and trying to get to know my host family. I'm staying with a professor at the University and his wife, and they're both amazing. We've been spending a fair amount of time playing "name things in Chinese and English," which is great fun and good for me, though I have some trouble remembering the things afterward. They're soooo excited and enthusiastic: she gave me a big hug the first time I answered a question right without having to puzzle through it for 2-3 minutes! So Great. Can't wait until I can actually talk to them, because I suspect they're going to be super interesting and fun.

Other thoughts:
--I keep getting hit over the head with how little Chinese I know. It's funny because I keep meeting people who I'm told don't speak English--my host father here is a good example--and they don't really, we couldn't have a conversation, but they still know way more English than I do Chinese--we'll be trying to talk, and I won't be understanding very much, and suddenly they'll pull out an English word for which I have no idea of the translation and I'll get it. Pwnd. I can't wait for classes to start.

--I've been watching a fair amount of TV here, because it lets me sit in the same room as them without distracting them from their work. Liangge thoughts:
--I don't know if this is true to some extent in the US, but here a significant number of TV stations are still replaying the Olympics for most of their schedules. You can literally turn on the TV at any time and see a selection of interviews with athletes, replays of the events in which China did well, and montages of important events/medal ceremonies. That's fun for me since I didn't get to see much of them while they were happening, and I think it gives a nice idea of how important the Olympics were for the people here.
--Watched some of the English-language CCTV9 this morning (not very much, I swear! And it was at my host family's insistence!). They were covering the war in Georgia, specifically the recognition of South Ossetian and Abhkazian independence by Russia. Sort of a different slant from what I've been getting via the Economist and BBC... mostly interviews with Ossetians and Abkhazians who were saying how happy they were to be free at last!! Here's the link to the equivalent bbc story, headline "West Condemns Russia over Georgia" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7583164.stm.

--BIG CITIES HERE. I don't think Shanghai's hugeness really came home to me until we went to the airport yesterday. The drive there was literally one high-rise apartment after another, in all directions we could see, for 40 minutes. That's what's really incredible--the fact that they still have skyscrapers 10 out from downtown. Wow. And then flying in to Kunming got to see some of it: apartment after apartment for a long long ways. Then during the drive from the airport to the university, my guide was talking about how Kunming is "A very very small city, not at all like Beijing, Shanghai." I guess true, but still seems way larger than almost any US city. "But we have good weather!"