Hi fam,

I’m here and the last few days have been great! The flight wasn’t too bad, although we were in thunderstorms the entire way from Tokyo to Beijing. It didn’t matter because I was conveniently distracted by the Chinese family across from me taking photos of the flight attendants. No one seemed to find it as entertaining as I did.

I’ve been hanging out with a friend from Cate who lives here now and is fluent in mandarin. He helped me get a good deal on a cell phone, showed me how to use the subway (which is very easy to use and clean-although verrry crowded!), and took me to his house in the suburbs outside of the City. His house looked like any nice California house (marble counters, high ceilings etc) except their was communist paintings in place of the Leichtensteins! It was very strange but expected.

Edie’s friend from college is here and gave me tickets to the mens water polo semifinals! Greece vs Germany, Hungry Vs. Montenegro, and the US vs. Serbia. It was amazing! I’ve never been anywhere so fueled with energy! I’ve met people from all over the world, many from countries I’ve never heard of.

The city here is packed with Olympians and tourists. I was at the mall yesterday and saw two basketball teams(they aren’t hard to miss), a track team and some volleyball players. Tonight I’m meeting up with some nice people from my flight to watch the closing ceremony. They also don’t have tickets but we are going to the venue to watch the fireworks, drink rice wine, and eat strange Chinese food (I could write a book on the weird stuff I’ve ingested here..).

Tomorrow I move into my University and start orientation!
My cell phone is: 13552438217 but I would never use it because of the price.

Besides that life is good! I don’t notice the pollution that much except I get winded easily (as if I’m at high altitudes) and it smells funny. The sky is blue and it’s extremely humid and hot.

Well, got to run and prepare for the festivities of tonight…let me know what you guys are all up to!
Love,
Rachael

xxo