Siberian Tiger Park, Harbin, China (2007)
My adventure begins today. More than 6 months after applying to Princeton in Asia, I'm finally headed off to China to teach English with the China Education Initiative (CEI) for two years in Heqing County, Yunnan, China.
It's been a strange past two weeks -- having my last day at work, traveling down the East Coast saying bye to friends, packing up my apartment, and leaving Charlottesville after 5 great years. A week ago it didn't seem like I was actually going. Almost nothing was packed, I was spending lots of time with Allie, and I was enjoying the beautiful Charlottesville weather. Now I've moved out of my apartment, Allie is back in Boston, I have two 50 lb bags, and my flight leaves in 5 hours. It's hard to think that in less than a day I'll be in Beijing speaking Chinese (which I haven't spoken extensively in 1.5 years), trying to figure out how and where to buy a cell phone while lugging around 100+ pounds of luggage so I can sleep in a bed at night.
On the 16th the CEI group from Beijing departs to Kunming for the start of our Summer Training Program (STP) on Monday, July 19. I'll write some more background in later posts when I have more time.
I am so impressed that you were able to do this much sightseeing in the few days you were in Beijing- and by yourself! I also can't believe how far you walked!!