See you later, America!

After a long travel day, I’ve reached my first post and am settling in.

My camera is in a shipment that’s coming later, so sorry no photos for now. But it’s really nice. Go with me on that.

It’s sort of weird that less than a week ago I was still in the US, doing all things normal. I left on Tuesday, and spent Monday doing a few catch up and check out things but mostly just tried to chill out.

I opted to go see “Catching Fire” at the Courthouse Theater and was appalled that the 1:45 p.m. showing was $10.25. That’s highway robbery, but I really enjoyed the books and wasn’t sure of my future movie options, so I bit the bullet.

Wow, movies have changed. This theater was AWESOME. It was one of the new pick-your-seat spots, and each chair was a comfy pleather recliner. The arm rest thingie also popped up to turn the chairs into little loveseats. I pretty much curled up into a ball to watch the movie.

I’d tried to go on Sunday, but it was sold out. Monday, however, was pretty sparse. I had an entire row to myself.

After that, I decided on Chick-Fil-A for my last meal in America for two years. I suppose some would find that kind of silly, but I really like Chick and plus, the peppermint shakes are back and I hadn’t had one yet.

My flights went just fine. I had some issues with my checked bag, which was overweight. That took awhile to settle, but once I got to Beijing it got complicated again. Eventually it got settled – I think there was some kind of error in DCA but whatever, it was fine.

I had another small issue in Beijing. I’m ticklish! I had to go back through security because once you clear customs you have to, and they did a pat down. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was a very un-diplomatic first impression, but I couldn’t help it.

My “sponsor” met me immediately and escorted my back to my apartment, which I was pretty happy to see. I arrived to the airport about at 9 p.m. and the apartment is about a 45-minute ride.

The place is nice but really not a whole lot like the website. I’m not sure which floor plan it is; I am on the very end of the building.

It's set up oddly, I think, but I have a fantastic view. However, much of the fantastic view is from the bathroom, which is glassed in. I can, and I'm not kidding, soak in the tub or sit on the toilet and see the city. Who needs reading material?  I can see this thing that was built for some sporting event – it’s a grandstand overlooking what used to be a pool; no clue what it’s used for now. There’s also the giant TV tower that’s in all the travel guides, the opera house, the museum and the river.

It's gorgeous but a little bizarre. I can see my office from the apartment, too. It's across the street from the Starbucks that looks like it's across my street. It’s maybe a five-minute walk.

The kitchen is a tiny closet and I can deal with that but there is no place to put your groceries. Not a single spot. Since I don't drink, I moved the wine service for six (which included a rack that used an entire pull-out drawer) and crammed it under the sink. That space is unusable for anything else because there are pipes and a fire extinguisher under there, but I worked around it to just store the stuff for two years. I got the coffee pot in there, too.

There are two doors because that's what fire regulations call for. Only my second door is about 10 feet away from the first, leading into the same hallway. If there's a fire in the hall, that 10 feet likely won't make a big difference. The second door, is, however, 10 feet closer to the emergency exit. I guess it has that going for me.

I am on the16th floor at the end of the building, which means I have the great view from all sides. I just looked and I can see a bunch of kids playing on the mini-golf course, which is really neat. There's construction out the view of another room.

My walk-in closet, which I've walked into multiple times so far thinking it was the second bathroom, looks nice but it's not too functional. There is a thing of drawers, but when you pull them out they're maybe 4-6 inches deep. The floor has a vacuum, stool, TWO ironing boards (one's new in wrapping - it'll be like that in two years, too), a laundry basket and some other stuff. Hence, no room for shoes.

I’ve problem-solved this by moving most of the stuff from the floor to the shower in the spare bathroom.

There are light switches everywhere. Each room has about three or more switches to various things. I was beat last night but spent time trying to turn out the lights before crashing. I am going to have to make labels. And once the lights were off, it didn't matter much -- since I have floor-to-ceiling windows with a city view, I had neon blue nightlights.

There is a TV in the living room and in each bedroom, so a total of four. However, there’s no consistent English channel that isn’t news. I can watch CNN or the BBC all day, but so far I haven’t seen anything that would be worth just leaving on for background noise.

I did try out my Slingbox this morning in an effort to watch FSU beat Duke. (Yes, morning. I’m 11 hours ahead of the east coast.) My internet is slow, so it was incredibly choppy and painful, but it was awesome to have some kind of access.

I don’t have a little hook on my front door, so I’ve had to hang the FSU flag that Dana gave me in the house. It’s sort of looped over a shelf. My Christmas stocking, which is also FSU, is sort of sitting on the next shelf down. My only other décor right now is a stuffed bald eagle that I got at the State store. I named him Indy.

There’s really no telling when my boat shipment will arrive, but I have a lot more decorative stuff in there. I brought a lot of my fridge magnets, but I had a sudden realization that in the new kitchen’s weirdness (which, BTW, includes having a washer and dryer in there) is that the fridge and freezer are the built-in kind that have faux wood doors that are not really wood (hence the “faux,” duh) but also not metal, either.