-After some breakfast in the hotel cafeteria (they had toast!) we had a welcome to our orientation and to China. I had no clue there were about 70 people on the program, so many! Most of the teachers are recent college graduates like me, but some have been out of school for a few years now. We broke into smaller groups for a 'survival Chinese lesson.' It reminded me just how much Chinese I forget when I don't use it. Surprisingly lots of people on the program have never been to China before or studied Chinese.
-We had a very Chinese lunch after which I ate a leftover pastry from the night before. Elyzabeth, Blythe (who will be teaching with her), and I found a convenience store nearby so stocked up on some Diet Coke and water. Well, we thought it was water but it turned out so be sparkling salty water. No idea why they sell that here.
-After some more orientation, mainly discussing how patient and flexible you have to be when dealing with the Chinese school system, we were paired up for a practice lesson. I was paired with Bjorn, who will be teaching close to me in Daqing.
-Next up was our welcome dinner at a Sichuan style restaurant. Sichuan food is known for being very spicy. There was also a performance of the famous 变脸, bian lian, a Chinese art where performers changes their masks in the blink of an eye. It was really cool since I had watched the movie 变脸王，Bianlian Wang, in my Chinese class and now I was able to see it in person. It really is impressive!
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