Arrival

This is the third time I have tried to post this. Though I do have internet access, it appears to be better "inbound" than "outbound".

Well, here I am in China, though not where I am supposed to be. There are people in life for whom things go smoothly but I am not one of them. First, it was the trip from hell, taking 4 days to arrive in Nanjing only to find that the winter camp that I had been hired to teach had been canceled! I had to spend a night there and fly up here to Shihjiajuang (not too far from Beijing) where I am staying at the home office of my recruiter. This is very strange but not uncomfortable as I am constantly reminded by news of the big snow storm in the south. I, too, could be one of the 500,000 people stranded at the Guangzhou train station!

I am staying in their apartment, have my own room, am warm and dry and fed but bored to death. The only salvation is a Canadian guy in a similar situation who is also here. He is teaching me to play cribbage to pass the time.

We spoke to my school yesterday and it appears it could be two more weeks (!!!) before I can go there. This snowstorm happened to occur back to back with the big Chinese New Year holiday ad some seem to be using it as an excuse to make a longer holiday. I am not happy but there seems to be little I can do.

Shihjiajuang is a nice enough place but the cold temperatures make it unpleasant to do much walking around.