Adventures in Guangzhou!

Having heard all of the PiA alums speak during our spring orientation about how the experience changed their lives forever, I should have been prepared for this. I realize now that I am standing on the precipice overlooking a bold new adventure that will inevitably change the course of my life for decades to come. The reason it is slightly unnerving is that as I take the plunge and head over the edge of the cliff to get things started, I have no idea where I will be or what I will be doing when I actually hit the bottom. I fully expect that a year (or two) in China will alter my general weltanschauung. I also now anticipate that doing PiA will change what I do afterwards. Maybe I will teach in Asia for a few years. Maybe I will end up doing something more business-related. Maybe I will drop everything and go work for the C.I.A. or something. Regardless, there are any number of avenues that I may take after this is all said and done.

On the more detail-oriented side of things, I am fully immersed in the packing stage of this experience. I won't lie--it's not fun. How exactly do you decide what you will and will not need over the course of the next year, in a place that you have never been before? As my good friend wrote while packing for a year in Italy, "It's funny how the things we probably use the least suddenly elicit our attention when we are about to part with them for any lengthy period. That ratty old shirt with paint stains all over it; that magnet game you have on your desk that has provided endless hours of procrastination; the rubber band ball that you have been working on for years: all are beckoning me to take them along for the journey." I now find myself evaluating clothes, minor electronics and travel supplies to determine if they make the ultimate cut. Sure I haven't used that maglight at all in the past year but I might just need it in China, right? I will consult my Magic-8 ball as I finish doing laundry...