I'm finally at Chengdu, China!  China 19s arrived yesterday afternoon after 20+ hours of on the plane.  NY to San Francisco (stayed there overnight) to Narita, Japan (4 hour layover due to delays) to Bangkok, Thailand (9 hour layover, therefore we stayed in a hotel for 4 hours of it- PC wanted us to change and shower before we meet our PC staff in China) to Chengdu, China.  As you can assume, we were all so tired and jet-lagged!  I personally was a walking zombie; I thought I was floating around.  As soon as we arrived, orientation began.  After some presentations and introductions, we were given the chance to bring our luggage up to our rooms then went straight into vaccinations.  It was a long day, but dinner was amazing!  I wish I took a photo of my first Chinese dinner. :( I forgot to do it.  From the next 9 weeks, I'll be trained in intensive oral Mandarin and TEFL methods/skills.  For now, I'm staying at the hotel that is on Sichuan campus but this upcoming Thursday I'll be moving to my host family and have my training at Chengdu University instead.

As I thought, China is very crowded from what I observed in Chengdu.  The air is different as well because of the pollution but thankfully its not as bad on campus.  China 19s are amazing people and I'm already in love with all of them! Its so hard to remember names and faces of all 72 volunteers but I'm working on it.

I also had my first Chinese lesson and found out that we all had a Chinese name.  Mine= Li Zhen Zhen (it sounds like Lee Jenn Jenn) HA! I thought of all the AU peeps who calls me Jenn Jenn and got emotional for a minute.  BTW I miss ya'll! hehe.  So this is the very beginning of my PC experience, beginning with PST (pre-service training).  Can't wait till next week to see my host family! Xoxo!