Welcome to Hechuan.

My internet has been on-again, off-again for the past week. Tomorrow I shall attempt to charm the Internet Man with my broken Mandarin in order to fix it, thus enabling me to connect to the world more than for one hour every two or three days.

I am almost completely settled in Hechuan, Chongqing now. The city is even smaller than I originally thought, about an hour outside of the city Chongqing; in fact, the only foreigners present are the other five foreign teachers. My apartment is distinctly Chinese, from the leaking air conditioner (thought at least we have some to combat the current sweltering heat and muggy grayness of the city) to the scalding hot water and freezing cold water, to the mud swirls we track through on the white tiles of the floor. Other than that, our living conditions are quite good -- dare I say we foreigners are even pampered compared to other apartments.

I'm living with the other American, Carolina. The other teachers consist of three UK peeps, and one Irish girl, and all but one of us is a brand-new college graduate. Evidently, then, Chongqing Normal University is not that stellar of an institution, considering they hired six foreigners with absolutely no English-teaching credentials or experience.

As I am teaching all freshman, and they are going through their mandatory army-training exercises at the moment (more about this later), my classes don't start for another week. My days have consisted then of drinking too much beer, trying to fix the internet, avoiding giving out my cell phone number to taxi drivers, and wandering about the city locating essentials such as mops, brooms, dishes, water bottles, towels... and so on.