Well everyone, I am off. The China experience begins on tuesday April 2nd. I fly from C-town to Chi-town to the big BEIJING! I got a window seat for the flight over the North Pole so i'll know if it is really where Santa lives. I will arrive in Beijing the next day, April 3rd, at 3pm CST. CST is China Standard Time. The entire country operates its 5 time zones on Beijing time. So when I get up at the crack of dawn it will be 5:30am, but when someone in a western province gets up at dawn it could be 10:30am. Kinda cool. I guess you always know what time it is in tibet.
I will then spend sixteen hours in Beijing, so if anyone knows the cool places to hang out near the airport, let me know. Then it's a short flight to Changchun on April 4th, arriving at noon and a two hour train ride to the school in Si Ping. Someone from the Academy will meet me at the airport and accompany me on the train. I will start classes the next day or so, not sure how they do assesments of ability but they will tell me what to do and i'll do it.
My Chinese is OK, probably barely passable as language. Those tones are so darn difficult. But I actually enjoy the language quite a bit. I will study language as well as Kung Fu, so when I get back maybe I can get some cushy translator job. San Francisco would probably have a few openings for Mandarin speakers if Meredith and I move out there.
That's all for the first post. Time is getting short and my flight draws near. It will be so hard to leave everyone for so long. But don't worry! i'll just be a mouse click away on this blog. (I can't believe I have a blog)
