Hooray China! - My first few days

Hello everyone. Sorry for the extremely long delay, but I have been extremely busy with everything. Let me try to sum everything up so both you and I arent here all day. I arrived in Beijing on June 1 with about 1 hour of sleep under my belt from the 13 hour plane ride (keep that in mind for the next 48 hours of my arrival in Tianjin). We then took a bus from Beijing to Tianjin which took about 3 hourse because they decided to leave the Beijing airport during rush hour. Real smart huh? We arrived in Tianjin around 7pm or so and I probably should have gone to sleep....but no. We decided to get a large group together and find a place to "get to know eachother." So, where did we go? Probably the loudest club in the world. I dont know if I heard a word anyone was saying and I came back with my vocal cords and ears both hurting. Other than that we had a great at Club Scarlet which is a real fun place thats located above a KFC in the middle of Tianjin. So I finally fell asleep which only lasted about 3-4 hours because the jet lag was telling me it was the morning in Waco. Oh well.
The next day we woke up and went to the bank which was really funny because when you walk into a place, the police get kinda sketched out like the americans are going to do something bad. I dont really understand but ya. We then went and did a little shopping for things that we forgot to get, luckily my mom and dad made sure I had more that what i needed. Lunch that day was my first meal since the digusting joke of a meal I got on my flight, and it was also my first real Chinese meal. My meal didnt come so I was forced to use Chinese and ask them basically where the heck it was. They then spoke about 100 mph and I just shook my head and said what I know. And guess what, 2 minutes later I got my food.....but the wrong dish. It was really good though and my Chinese I SWEAR is already getting better. That night there was a big feast for us at the hotel (the hotel is alright but compared to what people in China live in, we are staying at the Ritz!) They kept bringing out dish after dish after dish and you know, it wasnt that bad. There were actually a lot of very good dishes. Then, later that night a smaller group of my friends went to a few foreign bars and clubs and had a great time. The lady at one club wouldnt let me in the dance contest and I was really upset but oh well. I finally fell asleep that night at 4am and got up the next morning at 7am. So I had slept about 4 hours in a few days. My body hates me but Im still doing ok.
Sorry I know I said I wouldnt blab but I want to tell yall everything :) So Sunday we had a tour of the city and the first place we went to was sort of funny. If you ask me, it was a giant parking lot and the tour guide told us to walk around for an hour. Ya, I dont know either but it was cool I guess. Then we went to Culture Street which is basically a few streets full of vendors selling fake watches, glasses, everything fake. It was lots of fun though because you got to barter with the people there. I bought a pair of gucci sunglasses for about 3 dollars (too expensive if u ask me). I was also touched very awkwardly by a vendor, and if u want the story just ask and I will tell you. It was extremely weird, but hey, they will do what they want in order to sell their crap. After that we went to a restaurant and had a very chinese meal similar to the one we had at the hotel. We then set off for a street with millions of people and a bunch of random stores. I didnt buy anything but it was really neat to see tons of people walking everywhere because it really showed me how big this city is. We then headed back towards the hotel and the rest of the day and night we kind of just hung out because we were extremely tired and we had class early in the morning. OH, we ate at the canting (which is pronounced tsan-ting and is a dining hall at the school) and it was absolutely disgusting food, but thats ok. Last night I went on a run with my friend Leslie and hopefully that will be a usual thing because I actually kinda like the food. So I finally got to bed at a normal time and woke up for class this morning.
We got to class at 7:55 and the teachers know english but they WILL NOT and i stress WILL NOT speak a word of english. It was the hardest thing I have ever done but I know that even after today my Chinese has already improved. We had a discussion for almost two hours with 5 people per class and then a lecture with 15 people. It wasnt bad at all, it was just extremely difficult. After class, which is right now, I just got back from a dumpling restuarant which was amazing and with 8 people at the table we each paid 15 yuan which is less that 2 dollars and the reason it was that much is because we bought a lot of coke. We are going to go there later this week and just pick up the dumplings and it will be about a dollar to eat a ton of dumplings. And that brings me to now! sorry that was so long and boring and mom, im sure the grammer is terrible and its all over the place and my spelling sucks but you kinda have to deal :) im now waiting for my tutor to get here so I can have my one on one that is mandatory. So before I go I will leave you a few first impressions of China:

1) I love it here
2) I would never live here for longer that probably a year or 2
3) everything is SO cheap. for example - beer in the hotel is 35cents each, you can have a great day of meals for under 5 dollars, and other random things are cheap
4) THE POLLUTION IS TERRIBLE - whatever people tell you about the pollution, you cant understand how bad it is until you see it yourself
5) China smells
6) everyone reading this, you are extremely lucky for where you live and the way you live, and it honestly has opened my eyes and has really made me just thank whoever and whatever for what I have and where I live.
7) I miss everyone so much but I am having a great time
8) I have to go study which isnt fun, but hey, thats why Im here!
9) everyone stares at you and no matter if you stare back and them, they continue to stare

I love you all and hope to hear back either with a comment or an email. I typed all this for you, the least u can do is email me back.....just kidding. Have a great week and I will try to keep this up more often.....wow this was long