Baoding, China

So here I am, sitting in my new flat in Baoding. Finally. I took me no less than 3 1/2 days to get here, and instead of arriving on friday before noon as planned, I got to Beijing on unday afternoon. I got as far as Vienna just ok, but when the flight to Beijing was supposed to leave, we were told that Austrian Airlines had not managed to get an permission to fly over Russia and that the flight would be postponed to the afternoon the following day. After a couple of hours of following chaos and queueing and arguing, we were all put on taxis and sent to hotels in Vienna. Earlier I had met a Danish girl, Stine, who was on her way to spend 10 days with her boyfriend in Inner Mongolia, and we decided to get a room together so at least we wouldn't have to be hungry and miserable alone. So, as the promised dinner never came since the hotel kitchen was closed by the time we made it there, we raided the minibar for some peanuts and drinks and hit the bed. In the morning we walked around the centre of Vienna for a couple of hours, before heading back to the airport for another try.

But surprise, surprise... no flight to Beijing. This time the explanation was that the Austrian Airlines pilots had gone on strike. No wonder, I would go on strike if I had to work for them. The next thing offered was that I would wait until the next day and catch a flight to London and then get an Air China flight from there on saturday evening. As this was the best they could do, and I had to get to Beijing, I grumbled and took it. At this point, Stine had had enough, as her holiday was getting shorter and shorter, and she decided to head back home instead and try again later (hopefully with some other airline). But a few of us all decided to go for the London route, and so our brave little Austrian Airlines group headed back to hotels. The sights of Vienna did not feel too attractive at this point, when all I wanted was to get out of the city, so I spent my time sleeping, reading, and watching crappy TV at the hotel.

28 hours later I was on a plane to London with the others and finally left Vienna, although travelling in the wrong direction. In London, we had to run through the airport, get out boarding passes, and run again, but we made it...off to Beijing, yeah!

...however, our luggage did not. The only one from our group who got their luggage, was this French guy, whose bag had initially been sent to Zurich for some reason, but now it had founf its way to Beijing. The rest of us were left there, identifying our suitcases on the lovely airline chart while having the airport staff tell us that we might never see our luggage again.

But after all that, here I am in Baoding, in my huge new flat that I have all to myself. The place is great, except for the fact that it's really cold and the heating will only be turned on on 15 November (!!!) and that the toilet was pretty gross, but that was to be expected. I've spent quite a while scrubbing it today, but all that seems to have happened is that now the toilet is both gross and blocked. Oh well.

Other than that, the most exciting thing so far is that I went shopping with Feng Ying, who is working at the Department of International Cooperation and takes care of the foreign teachers. So now I have something to wear (chinese fashion, ummm...) and to eat, while I'm still praying that my luggage will show up and that it will miraculously be even taken here to Baoding and that in a couple of days I might be wearing my warm jumper and woollen socks.

I'll start teaching tomorrow, which I'm not at all prepared for, but not stressing about it, it will be nice to have something to do. I'll have both thursday and friday off as my students have some sports day thing, so I'll have a long weekend to explore the city, which looks great by the way.

And this is it for now.