Tadaaa!

Here I am, sending my first post from Macau.  I'm all settled into my apartment and it's lovely (and furnished) despite the extremely cheap rent.  My roommates are here with me and are totally cool.  We'll be getting internet at the apartment as of Tuesday, so after that look for daily entries. 

My address, for those that have asked, is below and I'm told the rumor I heard about being charged for accepting packages is false - so send away!  :)
Rua Pedro Coutinho
Edificio Queen's Court, #12A
Macau, SAR

Here is a quick rundown of the past few days:

Tuesday 8/2:
For those who have been following my passport name change saga, here is how it turned out.  I arrived shortly before my 9am apt. to see a long line outside the building.  It quickly became apparent that I should have come and spent all day in line and gotten it out of the way at my first possible convenience.  But since I didn't I waited for my number to be called and was seen around 9:20am.  After going through all my paperwork the woman told me I could pick up my passport between 3-4pm.  I told her my flight was leaving at 3.  She grumbled about it a bit but eventually talked to someone and arranged for me to pick it up at noon.  Luckily my wonderful friend Alicia saved the day by chauffeuring my bags to me and waiting for me to pick it up and then took me to the airport.  Without her it would have been a disaster, but it turned out to be fine. 

Wednesday 8/3:
The flight itself was fine - I read Return of the King and The Social Animal on my Kindle (Thanks Anne!) and was pleasantly surprised to find that Air China still serves real food.  There were little old Indian women on either side of my all decked out in their saris and one of them was using the empty seat between us to sprawl out so I nearly had her bare feet in my lap a few times.  We flew all the way up over Alaska, and they alternated between American and Chinese movies.  I didn't watch because my headphones weren't working, but they showed Tron and Tangled.  I managed to stay awake for most of the flight so by the time I got to the Beijing Airport I was really out of it.  I found the hourly airport hotel and booked a room and made sure I had enough time to get up and ready before my connecting flight to Macau.  Or so I thought...
(Oh, and another thing about the Beijing Airport.  It's spotless.  Sparkling.  There are all kinds of people wandering around cleaning the floors, and they do it like window washers, using the cleaning sponge and squeegee in tandem doing a little dance across the floor.  It was fascinating.
Also, when I was going through security I noticed a Hidden Dangerous Goods poster at each desk with examples of said goods and how they should be properly packaged.  On this list was Semen.  I really wanted to take a picture with my phone but I decided not to draw unnecessary attention to myself.)

Thursday 8/4:
After a night of weird jetlaggy sleep I got up and ready and finally figured out how to log into wireless in the Beijing Airport.  Who knew I had to scan my passport in order to get a password - how else would they track me?  Anyway I got some breakfast and was using my free time to check in back home and Mom says - "I thought your flight to Macau left at 7."  I was like, no, not till noon, but then  I decided to check just to be sure and realized that the flight was supposed to leave at 8:30am.  At that point it was about 7:30am.  So I took off and went to the counter only to be bounced around for about 20 minutes until someone finally told me it was too late for me to board.  Then I got bounced around some more trying to find someone to help me rebook a new flight.  After much ado and $350, I was set for the 4pm flight.  More than the money, I was bummed because it meant having to inconvenience the woman who was picking me up at the airport since now instead of coming during her workday, she would have to meet me at 9:30pm.  Luckily Carol was totally cool and whisked me off in a cab and got me to my new home with no problems.  

Friday 8/5:
After another crazy night's sleep I got up and met Beth, my fellow teacher and housemate.  She's from Georgia and has been teaching in Beijing for the past couple of years.  We spent the morning organizing our rooms and then went out exploring.  Wait, first, I need to make a confession.  We had breakfast at McDonald's.  We had no food and it's literally about 10 steps away from our place.  But that's not the confession.  The confession is that in that moment it was the best thing I've ever tasted.  Egg McMuffin, hashbrown patty and a coffee.  Yum.  At least momentarily I take back all my MickyD's hate.  :)  Anyway, we explored the city, found a grocery store with everything we needed and even more stuff from home than we ever expected.  We also found a beautiful park with a lotus pond and gardens and fish.  Pictures to follow once I'm set up at home.  We ate two more delicious meals at small restaurants in the hood and for dinner, I had roti prata.  That's right, first day in, I found it.  Awesome, yet dangerous.  Later in the evening Angie arrived with her parents who had been with her visiting relatives in Hong Kong. 

Saturday 8/6:
Today, as yesterday, I made myself stay in bed until it was light in an effort to get on schedule, then rearranged my room a bit more and then the 3 of us set off for an internet hotspot, and here I am, eating an egg sandwich with my bottled water (tap isn't drinkable), rice tea and an egg sandwich.  More to follow!