I made it to China! The 2 pictures above are are the views from our balcony. I still don't even know what the front of our building looks like, perhaps exploring in that direction will be one of my "tasks" for the day.
This is the back of our building... we are on the top floor. Those two drainpipes are the markers for which apartments our stairwell gives access to, so of the top floor between the drainpipes, our apartment is the one on the right. Please note: we live on the 6th floor, there is no elevator.
This is what I call the bicycle jail. Its a kind of hangar-like structure with barred windows in the middle of all the apartment buildings. It seems to house bikes from many different time periods, and the majority appear to have been retired for a very long time. Were retired-bike-time to be measured in inches of dust, I would estimate many are in the 1/4 inch range.
My flight arrived a little before midnight, Beijing time, on Saturday. Sunday was a lot of errands, like registering myself at the police station (!), getting a cell phone, finding a wallet that would actually fit Chinese money (too big for my old one), and getting some essentials at the fancy "western" supermarket that has real crusty bread. We had lunch at a restaurant hailing from the Yunnan province in the southwest of China, which was lots of delicious vegetables. I ate the whole meal using chopsticks, despite John's insistence that they could probably find me a fork if I wanted one. Chopsticks, unless I become much more efficient, may prove to be an effective weight loss plan. They make it hard to eat big bites or eat fast.
Monday was a little calmer. John worked most of the day, although I did make a solo outing to go meet up with him for lunch. On my way out of the building I ran into a few ladies who were chatting away. To my chagrin, I realized as I was passing them, that they were chatting at me. Although my reflex was to say "no hablo espanol!", I caught myself in time and did the time-honored response of just sadly shaking my head. I think they were asking me if I was the new person living upstairs, so we settled to the communication that involves smiling, nodding, and pointing upwards. Oops.
Monday night we went to a market that seems to cater to the foreigners. Here are a few pictures from it:
John with the nuts and dried fruit lady
Me, with the vegetable lady
Those are all the pictures for now! Wish me luck, send me prayers, hold me in the light, or your choice of other good thoughts, for trying to learn some of this tricky tricky language. Although I am assured it is a completely human task, at this point it seems like I won't get far without some supernatural assistance.
Please notice the chopsticks. This was my second chopstick-required meal. Not disastrous, but not easy.
See that plate of duck I'm chopstick-pointing at? I ate almost all of it. John only helped with the last little bit. 
Check out our spread. In the front - To the left: eggplant yum. Middle: fried duck carcass. Right: garlic broccoli.
2) I am employed. Very part-time. These are the two nice statues that stand guard outside of my building, which is the one behind them and to the right. It is in a complex of lots and lots of towers that look too similar, called Jianwai SOHO. So far I am just scheduled to teach 4 evening classes a week (7-9pm), to a small group of students that are considered to be advanced-intermediate. We will see. 
