New itinerary!

I received a message from Larry, our site leader, today about our new itinerary! It looks something like this:

June 1 - Arrive in Beijing

2 - Tour to China National Stadium in Beijing, Water Cube, Lama Temple and Confucius Temple

3  - Tour to Forbidden city, Beihai Park and Hutong

4  - Tour to Great Wall and Ming Tombs

5  - Tour to Summer Palace and Old Summer palace; attend a Peking Opera performance

6 - Tour to Temple of Heaven and Loasha Teahouse

7 - Tour to Badachu Park, Xiangshan Park and Botanical Garden

8 - Shopping at Wangfujing and Liu Li Chang

9 - Leave for Tianjin; visit Tianjin Normal University (TNU) campus; Welcome Ceremony and banquet

10 - Visit elementary/middle school

11-14 - Teach at middle school

15 -  Meet director, professors and students at TNU College of Arts

16 - 20 - Teach and audit classes at TNU College of Arts

21 - Cruise on the Haihe River; shopping at Cultural Street; visit Opera museum

22 - Tour to Shi Family Mansion

23 - Tour to Tan Gu district

24 - Tour to water park, zoo and TV tower

25/26 - Free day; shopping in Tianjin

27 - Rest and pack

28 - Shopping in Beijing/seeing group to airport/Last night in Beijing

29 - Train to Shanghai 

30 - Visit/tour Shanghai

It's kind of weird that we're doing more site-seeing than we are actually working with students but maybe the students will be taking us around to the sites and it will give us a chance to teach them colloquial English. 

Sep and I leave for Chicago Friday morning. We're hanging out in the city, visiting some sites and possibly attending a concert with one of my friends. Then, we're heading to the airport EARLY Saturday morning for my flight at 9:00. I will try to update again between now and then, otherwise there will be more to come from my 12-hour layover at LAX! (Perhaps a picture of a movie star or two.) 

Love,

Morgan

Trip updates

Ellen is a colleague of mine who is also going on this trip with me and is the one I will be going to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Bangkok with. (She's also in the School of Kines.) She has a cousin who teaches English in Beijing and he is going to meet us at the airport and take us to the Beijing Zoo!! I'm so excited! I cannot wait to see a real Panda!! 

As for our trip itself, it looks like we'll be spending some time at Tianjin Normal University (TNU) - as of May 14th. We'll be working with high school/university students like we had originally planned. I'm not sure what this means as far as Beijing itself, the Peking Opera, Dr. Lu Sr. or any other details from our original itinerary. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I expect we'll hear more in the next few days as we get closer to our departure. 

Packing fiasco

Sep and I have been making numerous lists of things I need to remember to pack for China. Everything from toilet paper, to a converter, to bug repellent, to a clothes line. My list is about  a page long and I have been DREADING trying to fit it all into my pack (see photo above). But good news! I have extra room! Even with packing everything on my list, it looks like I'll have some extra room for souvenirs after all! It's pretty crazy to think I am going to be carrying my life in a hiking pack for 6 weeks. Granted, some of that time will be spent in a dorm room, but I am fitting my LIFE into a pack. And I look forward to the challenge of carrying it around Southeast Asia.

Kids from other countries melt my heart

Stephen and his older brother with his brother's elementary class in Korea - aren't they ADORABLE?!

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My friend Stephen, who is part of GIEU Indonesia, has begun his field site experience already. He left last week (a week early) to spend a time in Korea with his brother. His brother teaches English over there at an elementary school. Stephen has been posting pictures on Facebook of his adventures and they look awesome! Looking at Stephen's pictures makes me want to move abroad and teach elementary English (and dance, maybe!) too! 

Depending on finances, next summer Sep and I have talked about teaching abroad - perhaps in the Czech Republic... so I guess it could happen! But Stephen's pictures of the kids remind me of how great it was when I taught dance at the elementary school in Grand Rapids. What a fun age! And it would be great to have that experience with children across the world! 

2 Weeks Pre-Travel

Map of Tianjin as compared to Beijing (above)

Close up of Tianjin (above)

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A little over two weeks until I leave for China. Drama continues to unravel with our trip - for example, we may no longer be working in Beijing but in Tianjin (a city Southeast of Beijing about an hour and a half). What we are doing in China still remains somewhat of a mystery as well. I'm anticipating numerous updates on details of the program between now and when we actually arrive in China. Not to mention,  two people have also dropped out of the program for various reasons. So... we'll see what happens.

Nervous to fly

I'm not flying Southwest, obviously, but this is a cool shot.

THIS is my plane. Asiana Airlines. Let's hope my nightmare is not a premonition...

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I'm getting ready for my trip - packing, planning, prepping, practicing (eating with chopsticks), and trying to figure out which 3 t-shirts I should bring abroad for 6 weeks. Talk about stressful.

I also have this reoccurring nightmare/phobia that my plane to Seoul, South Korea will crash in the Pacific ... I'm not even kidding. I've never flown overseas nor have I ever had a flight that lasts 15-20 hours, so I'm probably just freaking out but I seriously feel like our plane is going to crash. Ugh... 

Official send-off

Yesterday, GIEU held convocation - our official send-off to the various field sites. The people going to Viet Nam leave tomorrow, the New Zealand kids leave Sunday and the Indonesia trip leaves early next week. 

We also had our last team meeting yesterday. The next time I meet up with my team will be in Beijing! I kind of can't believe it. The trip still seems surreal to me - maybe because we've been thrown a few curve balls or maybe because I'm so excited but the countdown is T minus 29 days until blast off! 

I will update more between now and when I leave. But for now, it's a lot of prepping and packing... and practicing eating with chopsticks. 

Thank you for your support and the birthday wishes! 

Love,

Morgan