1st training days

It's a tight schedule for our orientation to Peace Corps.  These packed first days include sessions on health, security, arrival survival tips, culture, language, introductions to PC people and programs, more personal security and risk reduction, TEFL training, forms, photos, expectations, rules and regulations, dress code, administration, and our homestay.

We have lunch with our language instructor and dinner is on our own with the help of a short, PC created character/English menu that we carry around with us.

The campus is nice with many shops and places to eat; it feels more like a neighborhood than a campus.

I've been able to do short runs in the morning before sessions start and before the pollution gets bad.  A few people are going out in the morning, and several have gotten lost, but managed to find their way back to the hotel.  Today we actually saw some sunshine!

I've learned my lesson on "watch your stuff and keep it close."  My REI water bottle was taken from my unattended bag during lunch yesterday.  It's a small thing, but I lugged it from Idaho.  Do I trust the plastic water bottles here?

I'm taking lots of photos, but the DSL line is SLOW here, and it takes 30 minutes to upload 1 picture. Worse, the internet is on and off.  WiTopia, my VPN provider, worked with me this afternoon to create 3 custom gateways, and I hope that my next location has better internet service.

For the rest of the summer, my training is at Sichuan Normal University Eastern Campus.  Tomorrow night I'll be staying with my host family.  Their apartment is very close to the campus.  At this point, all I know is the family has 2 sons and 1 grandma living with them, they like sports, and live in an up-scale, gated community.