The adventure has begun

Ni hao friends!
    Well I have now been in China for a little over 2 days and already I have learned and experienced so much and it is only the beginning! Here is a (not so) brief overview of what the last 60 or so hours have looked like:
    My flight arrived Wednesday night local time and luckily one other summer staff volunteer, Virginia, was on my flight so we waited together for our driver to come and take us to where we will be staying the next several weeks. We arrived to our new home around 10 at night and most everyone else was already asleep, there isn't much staying up late around here. Our driver walked us up to our room and we met Annie, who would be our temporary roommate. Many groups and individuals come through here so sometimes there is a shuffling of rooms and when we first arrived our permanent room wasn't available yet so we stayed with Annie until we could move in. We quickly changed and washed up and then fell right into bed, we were both exhausted and at that point I had been up for the better part of 30 hours with only some short lived naps on the plane. 
    The morning after I arrived I was still kind of in sleep deprived daze and really had little idea what was going on. We were told to go to morning prayer so we attended that and then after we were informed that all the summer staff would be going into Beijing. However, we weren't just going into the city for a touristy day but instead it was an exercise in getting us comfortable using the public transportation here in China. So they took the group of us, some of which have been here before and were familiar with how to do everything, showed us how to get to the Pearl Market using the bus and subway systems and then once we arrived at the Pearl Market they left us on our own. A couple of the staff who had been here longer volunteered to take groups to different locations throughout the day and serve as a resource on the way back if necessary. However, Virginia and I were still suffering from jet lag and and lack of sleep and could barely make it through the first hour or so at the market and knew we wouldn't make it through an entire day of adventure in the city. After eating lunch in the city we made the (maybe risky) decision to venture back to our village just the two of us, no seasoned veteran to look out for us. We made sure we knew all the subway stops we needed and the correct bus number and then went on our way. I have to say we did a pretty good job, we made the correct transfer on the subway and knew exactly what stop to get off, however we somehow managed to still get off at the wrong stop... We got off the subway thinking it was the correct stop (we were mislead by the blinking map on the subway) and managed to roam around that area for probably a good 45 minutes or more looking for the bus stop we remembered but just could not find. It wasn't until we finally gave up and went back to the station to try and find a phone to use that we realized, we were not at the right station. We had a good laugh, bought more subway tickets, and made the ride one stop back to the correct station. Once we walked out we immediately recognized the area and made it to our bus stop and back to our new home with no more complications. It was an adventure for sure, two very sleep deprived jet-lagged Americans trying to use Chinese public transportation on their first day in the country. But we successfully made it back, no outside help required, and I now feel confident I could get to and from the city without a problem. 
     Later that night we went out to the village with a group of girls for our first dinner here. It was family style with several dishes brought out and put in the middle of the table, most of which I wasn't really sure what it was but tried as much as I could. Unfortunately, between all the new food and lack of sleep my body couldn't handle it and I spent most of Thursday night pretty sick which made for a pretty miserable night and very long Friday. Friday was all about orientation. We had a general orientation for volunteers, our specific summer staff orientation, and then more specified orientation for where we would be serving and a tour of the facilities. I had to miss out on some of the fun, including a village scavenger hunt, because I was still feeling pretty rough but luckily by Friday night I was finally feeling well again. 
     And now it's Saturday and we have a free day to do as we please, which means I have finally got to unpack all of my things in our permanent room, Facetime my roommate back home, and update this blog! Internet connection is way more spotty than I anticipated so the blog may not be updated as regularly as I would like but I will try and update as I can. Thank you to everyone who has been sending me kind words and lots of prayers, it is all so appreciated and needed! Monday starts our official "work" week so I will get to know more about what my assignment here will be and what the day-to-day will look like. 

Until next time,
Lexie

Taking the first step

Well, it has officially happened. I have now successfully made it through the first flight of my journey on my way to Beijing! Currently I am waiting in the Seattle airport as my next flight is not till 5pm Seattle time, so this is the perfect time to finally get this blog up and running! 
For those of you who don't know, I will be spending the next month in a village outside of Beijing, China volunteering with an organization called New Day in their Foster Home as a general foster home volunteer. As of now my exact role and responsibilities are still to be defined but I will be spending my days loving on the children there, getting to know the staff and other summer volunteers, and taking language courses during my free time. I plan to share more about how I ended up spending a month of my summer in China in an upcoming post but for now I just wanted to get this up and going before I leave America! I do not know how the internet situation will be once I am in China but know that I will have some availability and plan to update fairly regularly. 
Thank you to everyone who has followed along this journey so far and supported me along the way! I am so excited to finally be on my way and start this adventure! I look forward to sharing stories from my journey and what I am learning with you all!

Until China,  
Lexie