The hotel somewhere over that way

I have arrived, safe and sound. My flights (Richmond - Chicago - Beijing) went smoothly and relatively quickly (though my flight from Chicago to Beijing had a dismal movie selection of about 8 mediocre titles. To more than make up for it, I had my seat moved to an emergency exit row with more leg room than you can imagine. There was so much room for activities!

My seatmate was a very outgoing and friendly guy named Logan who works for the Coast Guard as what sounded like an environmental policeman. He shared some whiskey and some stories, and, along with a very friendly and open flight attendant, made the flight very nice overall.

Beijing airport was not so exciting. I spent an hour waiting for my luggage followed by an hour in a taxi cue and an hour actually getting to the hotel (my driver didn't know where it was, so he called two friends figuring it out) for the conference, arriving a little after 3am.

The first day of the conference was an amusement park, fun and exhilarating and leaving me exhausted at the end of the day. I met a few dozen people (about half from China and half from the US) whose names, colleges (mostly ivy leagues), majors (all sorts, from East Asian Studies to Dentistry), and hometowns I am struggling to remember and keep straight. I didn't miss to much due to my late flight, which was reassuring. We had a panel about Sino-US relations, during which I brought up foreign aid competition in Africa, which illustrated the really interested Chinese scholarship on the subject that is available. Following lunch, we all went to a lecture by a famous Chinese academic, He Weifang, who has done a lot of work to establish Rule of Law in China. The lecture was in Chinese, which challenged my Chinese and limited my understanding, but it was a fascinating lecture. We had dinner at a cafeteria at Tsinghua (4 floors, with tons of choices, with gov't-subsidized prices. We then got into groups to work on a group presentation for Wednesday.

Overall, it has been a good first day. I am very tired, but it felt good to be back. There are always the things you forget about, the annoyances that never enter your mind when you think back fondly, like not being able to brush your teeth with water from the faucet. My roommate, Qiu Daolong, is a master degree candidate at Peking University (he will be there one more year, just like me!), and is very polite, helpful, and friendly. All is well.

 All dressed up for the opening ceremony of IMUSE (Initiating Mutual Understanding through Student Exchange) 2012

 A famous Western-style building on the Tsinghua University campus

Some children doing an ROTC-like program on the Peking University campus