...hello hangzhou

after an incredibly harrowing journey on the train, we have finally made it to hangzhou, which will be our home for the next three and a half months. so far, the place seems pretty nice, though right now it is cold and rainy. but there is also the color green, which i have not seen for some time. in beijing, there were some pine trees, but their color was more of a grey than a green. here there is grass!

we're staying at the zhejiang university of technology, which has a pretty large and nice campus, at least what i've seen of it. we're staying in the foreign students dormitory, which has pretty nice rooms, though also pretty cold rooms. it actually is pretty freakin cold here. sort of right on the line where you don't have to wear a hat and gloves, but the buildings aren't as uniformly heated as in beijing. i think it's because below a certain latitude, or maybe a river, in china, the government no longer provides free heat during the winter. so there is no heating here. except for the space heaters in the rooms of the foreign students dormitory, thank god.

our roommates move in this afternoon, so we're just killing time for now in an internet bar across the gate from the university. the staff here seems really nice. hopefully it will be better than last semester where the resident director just skipped out halfway through, apparently. anyway, here's hoping i get a good roommate.