Our Arrival

We got off the plane and there was a nice man waiting with a luggage cart. I tried to ask him how much the luggage carts were but he didn't really understand me and he just followed us to the luggage carousel. When he heard how many bags we had, he went to get another cart as well. Then he lifted all our bags off for us and loaded them on the cart. We put bright fluorescent stickers on all our suitcases so they would be easier to spot. I'm so glad we did because everyone has black or dark blue suitcases that all look the same. When we got all our suitcases, this nice man helped us through customs (which was quick and easy) and then asked if we had someone to pick us up. We said yes, but not until 7:00. It was only 5:30 then because our flight was early. The man was really concerned about it, even though we weren't. So, he got out his cell phone and made us call the school. He spoke to them in Chinese and then told us they would be there at 7:00 (which we already knew--language barriers are so fun!) This whole time we were trying to figure out what was appropriate to tip this man because he had helped us so much. We only had US money and the smallest bill was a 20, so we just gave him one. He showed us where McDonalds was, parked our luggage carts for us, and told us to wait there but that the school would call him when they arrived and he would come load up our stuff for us. Sure enough, right at 7:00 he came back to check on us. The school hadn't arrived yet, so he called them again. Then he waited about 10 minutes until they pulled up and he loaded up all our stuff into the Clifford Van. I was amazed by what great service there is in China, but then later I realized that we had tipped him probably the equivalent of a few weeks salary, so that's probably why he was so helpful!
Zhangyi (Jim), the secretary to the director of the school, picked us up with a driver. He had to stop off in downtown Guangzhou, so we got a bit of a tour on our way to our apartment. The driving here is crazy! The are cars, motorcycles, bikes, pedestrians everywhere. And they just go wherever they want whenever they want. There doesn't seem to be any traffic rules or lanes or anything like that. I would be terrified to drive here.
Guanzhou is the 3rd largest city in China. There are 16 million people. It's definitely different than anywhere I've ever been.
On our way driving around, it was fun just to look around and see all the different things than we are used to. There was a truck with the back full of pigs driving down the highway. People on the streets use brooms that are just sticks tied together. There are people on bikes with huge loads of trash or cans or sticks on the back so their bike is as wide as a car. It was fun just taking it all in.