you never go hungery...that's for sure

I did in fact accompany the visitng retired KU prof and his wife around this morning and in the afternoon the took us out to a rather fancy meal. it was my first time expierencing what is probably a formal meal.

it was very interesting and i have to admit i was a bit nervous at first. you can't just walk up to the table and sit wherever you want. where you sit at the table depends on your status as a guest.
there is one "head seat" where on of the officals from the school sat and i believe, i may be wrong on this, but i think whoever is going to pay the bill sits with their back towards the door. i heard that they will do that and sure enough the man who sat in that seat did pay.
on either side of the head seat were the seats for guest 1 and guest 2, which was Professor Margolis and his wife. i was shown towards my proper seat as guest 3. all an all there were 10 of us at the meal. What was also interesting was that the man who drove the van we travelled in also ate with us. They told me it is was an old tradtion that a driver always is invited to the meal. The food was of course incredible! and there was sooooo much of it. they constantly offer you more food and have more dishes brought out. all the food is put on a "lazy susan" and you just spin it around during the duration of the meal. I also got to try two things VERY new to me. Sea cucumber and jellyfish. I'm glad i'm not the kind of person who gets squimish about trying new foods. I had a wonderful dark beer with my meal....and then never let me actually finish a glass before refilling it. I also had very delicious pear juice. And throughout the meal everyone basically takes a turn making a toast.

At one point they got on the subject of what women make the best wives. they claim it is a chinese or japanese woman because they make the best meals. And everytime they would make a comment about these women being better then all other women one of the men would then turn to me and compliment me on what a beautiful lady I am. They talked business for most of the meal so i basically just sat their quietly eating to my heart's content. At the end of the meal they gave small gifts to Prof Margolis and his wife, who happens to be Chinese.
They also gave me and another teacher who was invited, Dale, small gifts as well. I recieved a paded cup, kind of like a cup for pens that is red with gold flowers and dragons on it. It will be a nice reminder of the lunch.

I enjoyed walking around with Prof margolis and his wife..it was kind of like getting the VIP tour. we even got to go into some labs where some kind of cancer research is going on. and it was nice to go into some of the buildings i had not ventured into. At one point we went to a room that was basically filled with the history of Yantai University, and before we left they had prof margolis write in a large guestbook. They were both very very nice people and rather interesting to talk to. They actually knew where chambersburg was! hahahaha they had a grand daughter go to wilson and they often visited her.
they other funny thing was, the girl who was acting as their guide went to Kutztown for a semester and was actually at my graduation sitting in the stands. it's a small world.

this and that and all the rest

I went for a walk on the beach today and got a bit of sun burn....oh well. these things tend to happen to pastey white girls such as myself. jessica and i hit up the market. it's nice to have fresh fruit and veggies. when i got back to my room, i got a chance to chat with some of you night owl out there. it's nice to still feel connected to home. but i don't know how many times i can i say that i wish you were here.

Everyone here is very nice and i'm so excited to get to know everyone better. it's gonna be quite a year.

While just lounging about i got a phone call from a man from international affairs it turns out that a prof and his wife from KU are going to be here tomorrow and I've been asked to accompany them during the day. pretty random. i was told his name but didn't recognize it at all, but didn't really expect to.


It's soooooooo good to have speakers. kyle gave me a million new cds before i left and i really can't thank him enough!!! Especially for getting me a new copy of Lou Reed's Transformer.

ok....so if you haven't seen the Flaming Lips Video for The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song....you have to check it out! they are so good at never being disappointing. you can watch it here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNLJfb6jQVk

typo

sorry guys i made a mistake when writing that schedule....classes that don't start the week of Sept 18th start the week of Sept 4th.
so my first day of teaching is initally going to be this tuesday! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK

I finally have a schedule!

well the teachers had a meeting today....and i was given my schedule.....and i have to admit i'm suddenly very scared for monday. I've never taught anything before!!!! i thought looking at textboks would help....but i'm still kind of in the dark. i met the other teachers. most are much older than i expected. most are in their 40s-50s and american. There are 3 in their 30s, richard who lives in my hall, who is from america and a mark and jackie from britian. there are also 2 guys in their late 20s, tony who is american and nick who is from new zealand. then there are the little ones....me and jessica. jessica is 22 and we were both happy to find someone our age. Jessica and i are the only 2 without teaching expierence and there are only 4 of us who are new to yantai. it is encouraging that so many teachers return to teach again.
i'm really kind of freaking out about actually teaching. i'm suddenly overwhelmed and don't know where to start.

Here is my schedule
MONDAY: 8:00 am to 9:40 Listening, freshman class..... class begins sept 18th

TUESDAY: 8:00 am to 9:40 Listening, sophmore class......class beings Sept 1st
2:00pm to 3:40 Writing, junior class......class begins Sept 1st
4:00 pm to 5:30 pm Speaking, freshman class begins Sept 18th

WEDNESDAY: DAY OFF

THURSDAY: 8:00 am to 9:40 Speaking Freshman class......class begins Sept 18th
10am to 11:40 Self Study non registered students who need to learn english to further their goal of continuing higher education.....
class begins sept 1st

Friday: 8:00 am to 9:40 Speaking Sophmores.......class begins Sept 1st


And since i had some requests...hee hee.....the infamous pink phone!!!
oh my god why didn't anyone ever tell me how creepy my hands are?!?!?!?!?!

It's raining in china

Well i just got back from the health examination required so that i can take up residency here.
yeah...wow. quite an ordeal. Three of us were shuffled all over this medical building getting all kinds of tests done. The first room we went to they took blood...and plenty of it and instead if a bandaid they give you a q-tip to hold on your puncture spot. Giving blood was no fun. Nurses in china are definitly not as nice about things as one back home The next room we had to be weighed, measured and have our blood pressure taken. The man who did all this asked me "what are your eyes"...i didn't really know what to answer....so finally he just said "normal?" so i went with normal. the next room i had to have an ultrasound done in order to prove i wasn't pregnant....again the nurses...not so nice. the pushed very hard and i was surprisingly sore afterwards. The next room was a doozy. I had to lay on a table and the clamp things to my wrist my ankles and had me lift up my shirt to attach things to my chest. They printed out a looong piece of paper with all kinds of heart information. And last but not least...i had to have a chest x-ray done. All just so i can live here for 11 months.
I met another teacher my age today. Her name is Jessica. She seems very nice and like me wants to travel while she's here so i think we're going to be travelling buddies. the only other teacher i've met is a middle aged man, who is very nice but i have very little in common with him so it's nice to have another girl around. So hopefully i'm on my way to making some friends.

Yesterday i learned how to use the bus. and luckily the stop get off to go downtown is the same stop as the train station. so i'm excited to know the train station is that easy to get to.
and.... I got a cell phone!!! I love it!!! it's bright pink and rather spiffy!! it's by a chinese brand called haier. The downside to it is it doesn't have voice mail. i assumed voice mail was a standard thing that came with mobile phones. Aparently here it is not. They also don't really have a cell phone plans. I'm never sent a bill. i have a phone number i can call to find out what i owe and then i go to a china mobile store and can pay there.

It's about noon here right now. at 3:00 i have a meeting to find out what i'm teaching. I'm getting very nervous about teaching.....and the first day of classes is approaching fast!!!!!

I'm warning you now.....LOTS OF PICTURES

well, yesterday i decided it was time for exploring. I decided to walk farther into the market area, into where the shops are. Shopping is definitly different....and a bit stressful. Because i'm obviously a foreigner, as soon as i enter most stores I am followed. And when i say followed, i mean the HOVER. the stand only inches from me and watch every move i make. It makes you very self conscious and even though they know i don't speak chinese they talk to me any ways, obviously trying to sell me something. I did actually buy something though. and even checking out in a store is much different and at first confusing. instead of taking your items up to the counter, as soon as sales girl sees you're holding something to purchase she comes and takes it from you, and then writes out a little receipt. when you're ready to leave, you take your receipt to the cashier and pay she stamps your receipt and you take it back to the girl on the floor who is now holding your items nicely bagged.
HAHAHAHA although i know it's not lady like to post pictures of my underwear on the internet, i juts had to share what i bought! because i know there are alot of you out there who would get a kick out of them
I'm beginning to get quite used to all the staring i get when i go out. I have found that women stare alot more then the men do. i'm still finding very small differences between our cultures that for some reason fascinate me....for example, it was really really hot out yesterday and very bright out. naturally my first instinct was to put on my sunglasses. As i began walking i noticed no one wears sunglasses....at least not in this part of yantai. they all carry umbrellas to shield their eyes. it was funny that something as small as wearing sunglasses made me feel out of place.

I'm really in love with the market. yesterday as i walked around there were so many of you I thought of, and wished you were here. I took pictures of the market and couldn't wait to post them here, but at the same time i knew pictures could never really give you the full expierence. i wish i could record what it sounded like. it's so loud and and choatic. cars and motor bikes are constantly beeping their horns, stores set up loud speakers outside their doors and blast techno music, and of course all the commotion of street venders and teenagers running around.

This is a view of the market as you approach itThis is the first round of restaurantsThis is Further in where all the fun shops areAnother picture of shops

Even now as i look at these pictures they really do not do the market justice at all....it's such a cool place. yes, it realy is as dirty as it looks, but it's so much fun to walk around. well, as long as you don't get hit by a car or bike. There are no real rules for driving here. You can drive where ever you want in any direction you want. you just have to make sure you honk your horn so people know you're coming. sometimes is almost rather comical looking. For some reason these pictures don't make it look nearly as busy as it is. There are people all over the place. There is just so much going on at the market that it is hard to take it all in at once.

I did a little bit more grocery shopping and have discovered something I DO NOT like at all. The milk here is just really gross to me. you buy it in small bags, which i didn't mind. i thought it was kind of fun. But i really dislike the actual taste of the milk. YUUUUCK. so my first western product i miss.....Milk.

Because it was so hot i really could only stand walking around and shoping for about 3 hours. but i did manage to take lots of pictures around campus. hopefully this will give you a sense of what the campus looks like. It's very large. much much larger than kutztown.

This is the building I live inThis building is right beside me. I think of you elizabeth everytime i pass it!!!this is the view from my kitchen This is a dormThe living condtions for students aren't the greatest. As i was walking around campus with sarah on my first day here i found her almost apologizing for the students dorms and explaining that the problem was there are just too many people to house. I have not been inside one yet, but from how Penny and Vicki described their room they are very small and have about 4 people living in them. there are no dryers, so if you click this picture to enlarge it you can see some hanging laundry...other dorms' windows are filled with clothing.Just like Kutztown, Yantai U has aClocktowerThere is a beautiful Lake on campus. I forget it's name.This is the International Affairs Office Building. When you send me mail (hint hint) this is where is goes to. lol

Can you really be all that independent in a place where you don't speak the language?

The answer is yes.

It is a very bizarre push and pull. It's very liberating to know i have moved across the world all on my own. But at the same time you have to rely so much on the few english speakers there are. And since school in not in session yet, so far i only know about 4. No one off of campus really speaks english at all.

I decided that the best thing to do would be to just jump into things. i didn't have Penny or Vicki with me at all, and i figured that for most of this year i will have to rely on myself so why not just start now.

I woke up early in the morning to the sound of a crazy thunderstorm. I hung about in the room hoping it would die down a bit, but i began to get a bit stir crazy. so i grabbed my trust umbrella and headed out. I walked down towards the market area and decided to try my luck eating. I kind of just chose a resturant randomly. when i walked in there girl working the counter had her head down and was asleep. as was both waiters. the both sat at separate tables with their heads down. the sound my entering woke the one waiter, who quickly woke up the others.
Of course no one spoke english and the menu was all in chinese. so i kind of just pointed to something on the menu and kept my fingers crossed. every restaurant automatically puts tea at your table. it's like getting water back in the states. After that the first thing the offer you, at least in Yantai is beer. I was pretty curious about it so i decided to order a bottle. the bottle was HUGE, but mighty delicious. and so was the meal!! it was some sort of meat that came with sauce to dip it in. yum. not too bad for juts getting lucky. as i began to eat the place began to fill up a bit more and there were defintily people who sat and stared at me while they ate their own meal.

I had realized while getting ready in the morning that i had forgotten to get a couple things yesterday. so i also managed to go to the grocery store all by myself as well. it may sound silly but i was really proud of myself and it felt good. I wanted to walk around at take pictures of the area but the rain kind of kept me from doing that. The campus is ina smaller part of yantai and outside of shopping at the market there's not a whole lot to do. hopefully it won't rain tomorrow so i can sxplore some more.

So I spent a quiet day in my room settling in and e-mailing back and forth with Kelly Wu, who is in charge of who teaches what classes. as of now, it seems as if i am the youngest of the native speaking teachers they have and the only one without expierence. i'm looking forward to meeting the other teachers. It seems like almost all of them have worked here before, and i'm not sure where they are living because i don't think it's in my building. It looks like i will be teaching writing, speaking, or a listening class. i'm much more nervous about teaching then actually living here.

my computer doesn't have speakers so i can't really listen to music yet, which is a bit frustrating. so i juts but the tv on in the background. The television is alot of fun to watch. My favorite channel so far is channel V, which is thier version of an MTV, except it atually plays music videos for most of the time. over here they LOOOOOOVVEE the band keane and beyonce. When i was in walmart with the girls, vicki bopped around singing along to a spice girls song, and asked if i loved it to. Overall though the television ia alot of fun to watch. there are lots of talent shows, at a certain time of day it's like seeing a crazy version of american idol on every channel. I've seen Soft Cell's Tainted love music video twice....straight out of the 80s. i've never even seen that msuic video in the US. My favorite things to watch so far are the game shows and teh shows geared towards 20 sometings and teenagers because theya re both craaazzzy. not being able to understadn what they're saying only makes the shows even more interesting.

I actually had to document one show because It made me laugh soooooo hard. Basically a group of really hip 20- somethings stand in a group holding those big foam noodle things we play with in pools. They have to take slips of paper from a bag, and on them is written a dare. it's all silly stuff like drinking gross things or having someone write on your face in lipstick. Now i know what you're all wondering: What about the foam noodles?!?!?! Well, after they do the dares they all just stand around talking and randomly someone will say something that makes the whole group beat that person with thier noodles. I wish i knew what exactly it was you had to say to get a noodle beating, but they did it about every 10 seconds and most of it was directed to one girl in particular.

Tony I especially thought of you! You would have loved this! i had to take pictures of it for you!

my first entry from china!!!

Well, here I am safe and sound in Yantai, but still can't believe i'm really here for a year.
The actual flights here went really well. My first flight was from Dulles to Seoul, Korea...14 hours. I flew on Korean Air whichw as awesome. They feed us really well. I even had raw Salmon in my salad, and anyone who knows me knows how much i love raw salmon. I sat in a row on three seats and i had the window seat. The person who had the middle seat never showed up which was SOOOO nice. I never felt cramped at all and i sat with a super nice Korean woman who teaches highschool. I got nifty little gift bag and everything inside was this really pretty teal blue Korean air uses in their uniforms. The flight didn't feel nearly as long as 14 hours because my seat had a touch screen tv that let me choose from about 30 movies, play games, watches TV shows and other spiffy things. I watched alot of movies, including a short film about why Korea rules at making robots. When I arrived at the Korean airport i was starved.....and of course there was one place that called out to me above the rest.....

My lay over in Korea was about 4 hours long. I wandered around and went to Duty free shops were nice sales ladies gave me candy, including chocolate with very very spicy pepper in it. It was a bit boring after awhile and i was extremely tired. Korean Air did a good job of trying to simulate a night time environment for us, but I hadn't really slept much So i spent alot of time at my gate laying down. luckily I had good company with me. My lovely little Viv.

I hopped on my flight from Korea to Yantai, which after a 14 hour flight delt like nothing.
I was off the plane just as soon as i had gotten on. The plane was very small and i was the only foreigner on board.

I was greeted by three women, my contact, Sara and 2 adorable english students, Vicki and Penny. Vicki and Penny have kind of been little personal assistants and guides. They've both been studying english for a while, so we've only had minor communication problems. They have been so incredibly helpful and nice.
They're very curious about American life. they took me shopping and every time i picked up a brand they didn't recognize thew oulda sk me if it was american. It's funny cause they are hoping to see me pick up western things and but all i've been interested in has been asian products. One thing i thought was really funny was they took me to downtown Yanti today and were so excited to take me to Walmart of all places!!


Yantai just got walmart in june and they love it. They asked if i knew about walmart and if Americans shop at walmarts....oh boy...do they ever. Although walmart wasn't exactly where i wanted to go shopping, it ended up being really interesting to see their version of the infamous super center God. At one point Vicki was sitting next to me and she leaned her leg against me and wistfully sighed as she told me she wished she could be as white as me. It really caught me off guard to hear her talk about how she thought pale white skin was so much prettier then her own. I told her about how in the US most women tan in order to not be as white as i am, and she laughed and told me most girls in china wish they were white. Vicki and I are already planning to do a day of fun "girly" shopping in the near future, adn hopefully Penny is going to help me get a cell phone soon. These girls really float my boat, although having them always insist on carrying my things is a bit weird to me.
Tonight the 3 of us are going to get together for dinner.

Sarah,who's one of my bosses had me come out and meet her and her boss for lunch. He was a very nice man and he treated me to an INCREDIBLE meal. It was a feast adn i felt like i was going to explode once it was over. we didn't order from menus. he had sarah and i go to a kitchen area where all the food is out on display with tanks and tanks of live seafood. we then walked around adn picked out what we wanted. sooooooooooo delicious!!!!!!!! i don't even know where to begin with listing everything we ate. I was so nervous about using chop sticks in front of them, but i did pretty well. Sarah even complimented me.

I went shopping in the market today as well. The girls took me to get some groceries. Hopefully i will take pictures of it soon adnw ill have those to share. i haven't even been here a full day and have already discovered some delicious new things .....like kiwi nectar!

When I got back home I found a message on the door Sweet Regina's gone to China crosslegged on the floor of a burning jet that's smoothly flying

Well. This is it. In about 6 1/2 hours I will be on a plane headed for Korea and then to China.
It's all very surreal feeling. I don't think it's really gonna hit me until i get to the actual airport.

My last few days here at home have been wonderful, thanks to my awesome friends. It was really nice to get to spend time with people like Jason and Keli before i popped off to the other side of the world. Kyle came down monday night and is currently still asleep downstairs. He gave we some really thoughtful going away presents. He burned me 50 cds of music! WOO! But even more thoughtful, was a map of pennsylvania he gave me on which he had circled every place where someone who cares about me lives and wrote on it.

I had a small fondue party on Monday night as well. I couldn't leave the country without having fondue one more time. MMMMMMM. It was so nice to see Elizabeth, Cera and Meg, all of whom also stopped by last night to help me keep my mind of things. Cera brought over a dvd of old FU Manchu movies! They were soooooo Funny, and made for very appropriate viewing.

I'm really nervous...nervous/excited and Nervous/nervous....

This is gonna be amazing.

I about to really do this.....

"You've got to jump off cliffs and build your wings on the way down"
~Ray Bradbury

And suddenly it all falls into place.

So I basically have had 2 things looming over me concerning my departure on wed. First was I wasn't exactly sure how I would get from the airport to Yantai University. I'm not ashamed to admit that getting off a plane and having to catch a cab in a country where i don't speak the language made me a little nervous. Well this morning I got an e-mail saying they would in fact be sending someone to pick me up at the airport.

The other thing was I couldn't help but be a tad nervous about my Visa. I applied for it very last minute because this whole thing has happened with rather short notice. The company I went through assured me it would come in, but I was still a little anxious to get it, which I think is understandable seeing as I can't get in the country without it. Well, sure enough it landed on my doorstep today!!! Getting both issues resolved has lifted so much stress off of me. There is nothing to keep this from really happening.

HOORAY FOR VISAS!!!

If you squander your precious beautiful days, That makes you a sucker.You don't wanna be a sucker do you?

So i just got back from visitng Kutztown for 3 days. I got home and it really hit.....that I had really just said goodbye to all those wonderful people, and that I may not see them again for over a year. I'm about to embrace an oportunity that is going to change my life, and I have to do it alone. Wow. To be quite honest, that's really scary...exciting...but scary. I know I'm going to be having amazing expierences and wishing that Tony, or Kyle, Marie, or Yvonne, etc was there with me. I'm not looking forward to homesickness, but I can't let it hold me back once I'm there.
Every time I get nervous I keep trying remind myself of something kyle said to me: Is it scarier to know you're moving to China or scarier to be stuck in Chambersburg for who knows how long? Yeah, I think we all know the answer to that.

I'm moving to China. It's really happening.
Well enough of that....

Kutztown was a Blast!!!The Kutztown fair was going on which was a ridiculous amount of fun!! Funnel Cake, Beer, Demolition Derby, and Friends...does it get much better than that? Oh wait..yes it does, because there were also RIDES!!!

You better believe many rides were enjoyed . 5 bucks to get in and ride all the rides you want. If that's not a deal I dunno what it is. We started the night by taking a ride on the Tornado....which, by it's name I assume that you've guessed it involves spinning it's riders into a state of nausea.
Kyle, Aaron, and Tony challenged Jamie, Jackie and I to boys vs. girls tornado rides. The boys definitly won.....but that's ok.

My personal favorite was The Zipper It was so good I had to ride it twice! the first time i rode it with Tony and then with Jon. Riding the zipper is like being put into a shark cage and instead being dropped underwater, just being spun all around. I have a soft spot for rides that turn you upside down. Of course though the great company helps those rides be even more fun.



It was just so awesome that i chose a random monday to come to Kutztown, and it just so happens that this crazy fun fair was happening. It really was the perfect way to begin my stay.
I think Carnivals are the best things...at least good carnivals. And it just seemed like a very American and appropriate thing to do before I leave the country. Drink beer and Ride spinning, flying rides until my tummy tells me that's enough of those shenanigans.

After the fair a bunch of us went to the Pub, for a kind of mini going away party. It was really great. I got to hang out with so many people that I wouldn't want to leave the country without seeing at least one more time. It was hard because I wanted to talk to everyone! I tried my best to mingle and keep on the move, but at the end of the night I of course wished I had a little more time with everyone.
"You’ve all got to come out and have a drink with me. I’ll buy round one,
you buy round two,
you buy round three.
We’ll make a toast to absent friends
and better days,
to remembering and being remembered as brave"

Tuesday also managed to be a pretty lovely day. Marie took me out for breakfeast and it was so nice to sit around and talk with her. I stayed with her while i was in Kutztown and i can't thank her enough for giving me a place to stay. I even cuddled with her stuffed horse she's had since child hood. hahaha. In the afternoon Kyle, being the spectacular guy he is treated me to Ritas Italian ice. Deeeeelicious. I also unexpectedly ended up at the apartment of a friend of Kyle and I, Joshua. He's about to move as well, so it was definitly good to work in a visit with him and his awesome dog, Bam Bam.
Kyle had to go to some town meeting kind of thing to do Eckhaus stuff, so unfortunetly i didn't get to spend as much time with him as I was hoping. Luckly I think he's gonna come to good ol' C-burg for a visit. In the evening I sat out on the back porch and hung out with Ryan. I got to hear all his hospital stories and just catch up in general. It was really nice.

Wednesday turned into trying to catch up with anyone i had missed. Yvonne treated me to breakfeast because she is just awesome like that. We always seem to make a trip to the Attic when we would hang out, so of course for this occasion it was very necessary. I also got to see Seren which made me SOOOO happy. I was really afraid I wouldn't see her before i left cause she was out of town. And while walking around campus,getting pictures to show my students, I ran into Dan Talley which was a really pleasant surprise. I'm glad I got to thank him in person for writing me that letter. Yvonne and I then stopped by Ryan and Sandy's for one last good bye and then by Marie's. And then away we went. All and all such a good time. Thanks again Yvonne for giving me a ride!!!!! Everybody check out yvonne's blog (http://yvonneboudreaux.blogspot.com/2006/08/shes-off-to-china.html) for pics of our travels.

is this really happening?!??!?!?!

So this story actually begins back in March. That was when I applied to do an internship over in Hong Kong. I ended not getting the job, but being the runner up. Obviously i was pretty disappointed, but at least i had tried.

Now, lets jump ahead to about three and a half weeks ago. I get a message left on my voice mail from Dr. Stewart, the man who interviewed me for the Hong Kong position. He told me he had been impressed with me and that he wanted to tell me about a job opening in China he had recently learned about, the catch was it was very short notice and they were looking for someone to come by the end of august. I immediately started getting everything together that i would need to apply. I even got lucky enough to get a hold of two of my former Professors who were nice enough to literally write me letters of recommendation almost over night. Barbara Schulman and Dan Talley and forever going on my list of amazing people.

Sure enough earlier this week a representative of Yantai University called me and offered me the job!! I can't even tell you how excited I was. The school is giving me a monthly salary, a fully furnished apartment,travel reimbursement, and a vacation allowance. I still can't really believe it's happening.

I'm offically leaving the country as of Aug 23rd and probably won't return until july 2007.
yeah....wow. The cleaning and packing i have to do before i leave is a little overwhelming...but I think i'll survive. I'm going to Kutztown tomorrow to meet with Dr. Stewart, who is going to give me a crash course in living and working over in China. I'm planning on staying there till Wed, so that i can visit with people who i just can't leave without seeing one more time.

Even though i'm on the other side of the world, doesn't mean i'm going to disappear. I'm setting up this blog so that all my friends and family who want to keep up with me can do so easily. Believe me, i'm going to be dying to know what's going on in all of your lives too during the 11 months i'm gone!

I'm not quite sure what do with my online store yet....I know that I will have to close at least temporarily. Who knows if I'll be able to reopen while i'm over there. but in the mean time....i would love to get rid of what i have so PLEASE check it out and show all your friends!!!