First Posting (Aug. 18, 2010)

What to say? There have been so many experiences is our two weeks here. Overall this has been a confused, chaotic, and challenging new direction. We were met at the airport by Jessie (I call her Jessie no Guo to distinguish her from the other Jessie, Jessie Guo, who works for I.S.S. in their Shenzhen office. So, we came out of baggage claim at the Shenyang Airport with our backpacks and two checked bags each. Jessie no Gou, her friend, and the driver helped us load the bags into the van and then off we went. It was late--9:00 p.m. (the flight had been delayed a bit in Beijing) so we didn't see much. Night had fallen and all we could see was what the street lights and shop lights outside the van illuminated.

Even if we had full daylight, our minds were pretty fuzzy from the hours of travel. Seattle to Vancouver was about an hour and then we had another hour layover in Vancouver. The Vancouver to Beijing flight was 11 and half hours, plus another two hour layover in Beijing which stretched into two and a half hours. Finally, we had the hour flight from Beijing to Shenyang. So about 17 hours of travel combined with the time difference put our brains in a very strange place. That was the lens through which we saw Shenyang at first.

Some highlights: Three or four huge stadia/sports complexes that were built for the 2008 Olympics and which, according to Jessie no Guo, are not being used. She was not even sure what sports or activities the different structures were designed for. I know that some soccer games were played here. The driver thought that maybe some gymnastics and handball events were also held here.

We crossed the main river here. It's called the Hun He. He means river, I found out that Hun means mother. The river "gave birth" to Shenyang.

We drove through a very mysterious stretch of busy road that had a Nighttown feel to it. There were many people out and about. There were side of the road food vendors. The most popular street food in evidence was grilled skewers of different kinds of meat. There were also table groups of men both inside restaurants and outside by the vendors. The tables collect big green beer bottles as the night goes on. The wait staff don't clear the empties until the drinkers leave. It's easy to gauge how heavily the patrons have been hitting it just by glancing at the accumulation of bottles on their tables and even on the ground near by.

When we arrived at the school campus I noticed IV bags hanging from the branches of some trees. I wondered if there was some sort of strange sidewalk medical treatment going on. The next day I learned that they were really tree medicine. It doesn't seem to have worked; we have many dead trees which the workers later begin to cut down.

 The van pulled up to a building and we got out with our stuff. Jessie no Guo led us inside to apt. 112. We deposited our bags and looked around. Noise outside caught our attention. We went out and discovered John, Maggie, Kelly, and Justin and Holly all gathered in John and Maggie's apt. (#122). John, Maggie, and Kelly were familiar faces and it felt a bit more welcoming to have seen them. We knew we were at the right address at a minimum. We were so tired though that after a quick hello we went to our place and collapsed.

End of Day One