I made it. No major setbacks, everything went well with the flights and the taxi drive (the part I worried about the most) was fine.  The driver knew where Tsinghua was, he didn’t know where in Tsinghua I needed to go, but we just drove around asking people until I found the international dorms.

I have been here for 12 hours now, I’m typing this at 3:30 am. I went to bed at 9pm but have woken back up. I won’t be able to send this email/update until tomorrow because I do not yet have a password for the internet.  Everything was closed today when I arrived. I don’t know if this is because of the weekend, the school not being in session, or Chinese new year.  Tomorrow morning I will be able o register and get all the paperwork done ( laundry card, ID, internet, register with the police, and so on).

Without being able to register the only thing I have done so far is to start  understanding the layout of the school.  My dorm faces the street Zijing, which gives access to all the international dorms on one side and the sports fields on the other.  If your follow Zijing you will pass a tennis courts, the track, and soccer fields on one side while passing five identical, ten story international dorms numbered 23 to19 on the other side.  The street ends both ways in what appears to be more dorms, all of which are at least ten stories high. Leaving the street and going across the fields I realized the area has a fish bowl effect because of the flat low fields surround by tall buildings on all sides. All of these building seem to be dorms, making this part of the campus a residents area.

However I am not certain these are all dorms and already have been confused by some buildings.  I walked across the field to look for the campus grocery store. My lead was a sparse string of random people with shopping bags. I would end up right in front of the store but however could not tell it was indeed the grocery store.  This building is strait across from my dorm and is called the c building due to its c shape.  The grocery store is in the basement of the building, while the upper floors consist of study rooms. Nothing about the building looks like a western store.  If you continue to the right of the c building there is a little inlet in the dorms with  a shorter building. This appeared and turned out to be one of the schools cafeterias.  There are two small cafeterias tucked in-between the international dorms as well, these are currently closed until the semester starts. This cafeteria however was open.  What you notice when entering any of the building on campus, including this cafeteria, is that they are all left open. The doors are not shut, but instead there is a mono-color thermal blanket that drapes in the doorway to keep heat in the building. 

The cafeteria was fairly typical, similar to what you find in high schools. When you walk in the back wall consists of  a serving line with two areas at the end for dishes. The rest of the hall was just chairs and tables. While I was there they seemed to be serving three different meals. Everything smelt good. What really caught my eye was a small bakery area near the end that was selling bread and pastries.  I could not eat here yet because it requires a meal plan. However there was an American style restaurant on the lower floor. They took cash, so I had a small pizza.  While I was eating a group of Chinese students took interest in me and started talking with me to practice their English.

They showed me a little of the campus and  we talked for a while in one of the study rooms in the C building. Tomorrow they plan to show me more of the campus.  If you haven’t got the idea yet the campus is massive. I will be buying a bike in the future. 

Alright that’s enough for now, I’ll send the next email when I have some events to tell.

-Nick