Nov. 15, 2016
11:30 pm
Beijing, China
Hello, everyone,
So today’s blog really is going to be quick. It was another day off. Well, sort of. You see, today was my day off, but EF still had our intake group doing work. This morning, I had to be up around 7am to get ready to head into the heart of Beijing. Brian, Taylor, and I actually ended up leaving about an hour later. You see, when you come to China for work at EF, they have you get a 30 day working visa. Once you get here you have to extend the visa and get a residence visa. So, today we all had to meet at the Public Security Bureau to complete our “visa interviews.” These “interviews” actually just included signing two pieces of paper, taking a picture, and confirming they had our information correct. We literally traveled an hour and a half by train for a process that took maybe fifteen minutes. Wasn’t my favorite morning. Afterwards, though, we went out with Shay and Mark to grab lunch at Starbucks before heading back to Yizhuang.
After heading back to the apartment so that Taylor and Brian could pay their rent, we headed into the center. See, today is my day off, but not Brian’s, so he had to work. Taylor and I just went in so that I could show her a few things on the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). That took maybe a half hour. Then it was off for another trip to IKEA. We went to the IKEA in the south of Beijing, not the one I went to last week. It’s in DaXing, which is the district in which we live, but it’s on the west side while we’re on the east. While it would maybe take 20 minutes to get there in a straight line, it took us over an hour by train because we had to go into the city to take a connecting train to go back into DaXing.
While the ride was exhausting, the trip was well worth it. Taylor had never been to IKEA before, so it was fun to introduce her to it. Also, we found some great stuff, including sheets for her and some organizational stuff for me. The real fun, though, came after IKEA. This IKEA, unlike the other one, is actually situated in a HUGE mall. Literally, the only mall I’ve seen bigger than this is the Mall of America. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t that big, but still. Anyway, Taylor wanted to find Old Navy, because this is the only place we’ve seen one, and we definitely needed to find some dinner. We ended up getting lost in this mall for a good 10 minutes before finding the Old Navy and then another 10 minutes trying to find Pizza Hut for dinner. By the time we sat down, our feet were about ready to fall off. But our day was spent laughing and just enjoying time together. It was really fun and relaxing. I hope that it was as enjoyable for her as it was for me.
The trip back was still long, but this time we got to sit most of the way, which is always nice. Upon returning home, I unpacked, did some laundry, and cleaned my apartment as much as I can. Now I’m off to bed and excited to enjoy a full day of rest tomorrow. (Sorry this post was so boring, but this is literally all that happened today.)
Night, all,
Kristen
