SNAPSHOTS

I'M IN HARBIN

I made it to Harbin yesterday around 2:30 PM. It was a nice, short 2 hr flight from Beijing. My teammates (the other three American teachers at my university) met me at the airport along with a driver from the school and the man who takes care of our housing.

I sorta like being on jet-lag. I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning and was very productive rearranging my room and unpacking my suitcases, though I already broke something :( ... but it's fixable.

Today I'll be getting things for my apartment and settling in. Later tonight I get to go judge a speech competition with the other American teachers! We have no clue how to judge it, but it should be fun. I'm excited to meet some of the students here, too!

I'll post pictures of my place and the campus later when I get the internet on my own computer set up.

<3

MOVING DAY(S)

So today is(are) my travel day(s). Hopefully, if all goes as planned, my luggage and I will land in China sometime on the 25th! All my luggage weighs as much as I do, but I guess that's what happens when you're moving continents to a place where you have to wear lots of sweaters.

I think I figured out that I'm losing a day (most of the 24th at least) but I'm gaining a year! In China, when you're born, you are considered a one year old. Therefore, when I set foot in China, I will be one year older, but I will have lost a day in transit. My brain hurts when I think about it.

Here's a few photos of where I've been for the past month. Looks pleasant, but you can't stay outside too long or else you'll be baked in the 100 degree weather. It's made me look forward to fall in Harbin even more.

Mountains without trees! They look so bare!

What am I doing here? This landscape is even more foreign to me than China.

This is actually what I've seen daily: the well-watered desert outside our hotel/home. And beautiful fruit trees by the side of the road!

... And coming soon: Photos from my new home in Harbin.

STILL STATESIDE, BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!

So it feels like I've been in California forever ... but tomorrow I fly to China!!! Can't believe I'm actually going. I think it feels more surreal now then it did when I left home.

WHERE I AM...

IN ABOUT FORTY-FIVE DAYS I'LL BE HERE:

It looks really far north, but in actuality it's at just about the same latitude as New Hampshire where I spent my last four years.

But before I go here, I'll be spending a month near Palm Springs, California taking classes to prepare me for my job: teaching English to university students in China!