My last week or so in the states was pretty hectic and wild; so I apologize if I didn't get back to your email or phone call. I had three flights to Houston, one five hour bus ride, a flight to New York, and 20 hours of traveling to get to Zhengzhou. It's been a long road, but I'm confident that it'll all be worth it in the end. I'm getting settled now and my energy is rebounding so it won't take long for me to start exploring my new home in earnest. These upcoming exploits should make for some more interesting updates than this one so stay tuned!
Below are just some snapshots from journey and my first glimpse of Zhengzhou. As glad as I was to finally arrive I was certainly caught off guard by the pollution. I thought I was ready. I mean I knew it was coming, but I guess I just didn't know what it would really be like. As it turns out, smog is just like a giant dust cloud (dust = commercial exhaust) that hangs there. It's a haze between you and everything else. To be honest, I haven't seen the sky or a cloud since I've been here—Just gray haze. "How do people breath this stuff?" They just do, it would seem; and for that matter so do I now. I was very conscious of it the first day or so, but it's becoming just an unfortunate part of the landscape. If there are side-effects, they don't seem to be immediate so I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Clean air has definitely become one of my biggest motivations to explore some of the more rural and remote parts China.
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| Not a bad view for a last look at Manhattan. |
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| Beijing's never ending airport. Terminal 1 of 3. |
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| The center of my school's campus. |
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| Neat, but not quite wheelchair accessible. |
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| Just in case you didn't get the idea... |
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| Thats not fog. |
