The June 2007 Blog
It's a Small World After All. - Monday June 25th, 2007I've already made contact with 6 people who I will know in China. My friend Joe is going to Shanghai to study abroad next semester. My friend Norma will be doing the same thing in the Sichuan province (Chengdu?). Two teachers from Denver, Karen and Gregory, will be at the same summer program in Huai'an as me. In fact, Karen will be landing in Shanghai about 5 minutes before me. (Strangers in a strange land... at gate 18!) My friend Maia from Denver will be teaching in Nanjing in the fall. And now I just met Amanda, a girl with the good fortune of knowing my Chiu Laoshi who will also be in Nanjing! That's a lot of Coloradoans meeting up in China.
Anyway, since my last journal update, life has been absolutely crazy. Chiu Laoshi (my Chinese teacher) had a going away dinner for me and invited the girl I love (Kirsten, wo de xiao mei), my two friends moving to China (Joe and Norma), another guy from class - Ting Baidan (haha if you know Chinese!) - and her American husband who had some GREAT insights on what a foreigner moving to China should know (and bring). It was a great night, but probably my last normal night in town.
Right after that dinner party, I had a party at my apartment and organized all my stuff into a big "free to good home" pile. (Later my brother and I would ex out the "good" ... free to home!) Most of my friends adopted most of my stuff. Poor Kirsten got stuck with about half my stuff! (Which is good - she'll be thinking about me while I'm gone.) Anyway, that party was about a week and a half before I actually moved out, so I was depressed to be living in my emptry apartment.
I went to a wedding down in Denver for my last weekend in town. It was nice to get away from my empty apartment and the stress of moving overseas.
My boss threw a going away party for me in the Deans Office. This party included pies, chips, salsa, and some funny gifts. I finally got the book "River Town" by Peter Hessler.
Finally, my little brother arrived in town with his Ford Ranger. We threw my few remaining possessions in the back and drove to my parents house here in beautiful, romantic Salt Lake City. Now I'm just relaxing for two weeks before I fly to Shanghai. I've made about 5 different shopping lists so far.
Moving to China is less scary when you can make contact with 6 other people who are also moving soon - we'll have our own little ex-pat club in the Jiangsu Province!
The visa is here! - Friday June 1st, 2007
I'm actually moving to China! I got my visa. I'm not sure why I was so nervous about the process - I know they approve 99.9% of visa applicants. I just fret over the little things: "What will I do when my visa application is declined? What if they think I'm a spy? What if Homeland Security thinks I'm a terrorist? What if I run into David Hasselhoff at the airport? What will I say to the Hoff?" These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night.