Safe and Sound

I'm here. Beijing is hot and humid. I finally got the internet in my dorm room to work. But now I have to go register for my classes.

I have a very busy evening coming up, but lots of free time tomorrow.

4 hours

Well, I leave for the airport in 10 mins. Next time I write/talk/communicate hopefully it will be from China. Thanks for all the well wishes.

Be on the plane around 12 noon.

24 hours

One day. That's it... just one day until I leave. I have four more hours at work. I'll go home, do one last load of laundry and zip up the suitcases for good. I still have to say goodbye to myapartment-mates Andrea and Ruth and give them my keys. I have to get up early tommorrow so I'm ready to leave for the airport at 8am.

Should all go as planned this time tommorrow I'll be sitting in a plane.

2 days 11 hours 30 minutes

Can you tell? I'm excited. Very excited. I only have a few things to finsh before I'm completely ready to go. There isn't much new to say, only that I'm going to be leaving for China in less than three days. Of course, I won't get there until Thursday, but I'll be leaving Wednesday. Sorry that I keep repeating that I'm going to China, but I can hardly believe that I'm actually going. I'm hoping that if I say it enough times it will really sink in. I talked to my sister tonight and she said it probably won't hit me until I'm on the plane, or in the Beijing Airport.

I'm going to China!!

4 days 22.5 hours

I'm getting more and more excited about leaving. I'm getting emails about traveling, packing up my suitcases, getting my textbooks, repacking my suitcases... and it all makes me more and more anxious to leave.

I'm not really looking forward to being in a plane for 17 hours, but I figure it's a small sacrifice to make for seeing the other side of the planet.

Speaking of being on the other side of the world, Beijing is GMT +8, while EST time (Grand Rapids) is GMT -5. What that means is when it is 10:30am in Grand Rapids on August 25th, it's 10:30pm in Beijing on August 25th. When it is 7:00 pm on August 25th in Grand Rapids, it will be 7:00am on August 26th in Beijing. The whole time zone thing is kind of crazy when you think about it.

7 days 20 hours

I decided to switch to this web-blog service since uploading photos here is easier than xanga. It shouldn't be a problem for me to post here while I'm in China, but if it is I'll try to find a way to let you know.

I'm pretty excited about going. This whole summer it seemed like time was going by so slowly, like my departure date wasn't real. With just a bit more than a week left leaving seems almost surreal. I can't believe in 7 days and 20 hours I'll be flying halfway around the world.

Here is a picture of my whole family at graduation. I'm going to miss them while I'm in China. Laura will be in Antartica, my parents in Canada and who knows where Matt and Andrea will end up going in the next 4 months.

This is me with my cute and cuddley kitty, Absinthe (Abby). I'm going to miss her and Dante.