Counting Down

Hi Everyone!

I am leaving for China in two weeks, after having spent a wonderful summer out west visiting my siblings and a few close friends. It has been a wonderful summer and an enlightening experience having given away all of my posessions except for three small boxes. Incidentally, I have discovered that sending my few posessions, valued at maybe $500, will cost $2,300 to ship to China. So I will again cut my posessions in half. Thankfully, I have an uncle who does business in China and has offered to ship my belongings for much less. At this point, I feel like I really do not need to go with anything, saves a lot of shipping and customs hassle. And, I do get reimbursed for most of it.

In other news, I am still waiting for my passport and ticket. I recieved a phone call from my employers offering to have me wait one more month before going out to Dalian. There have been many storms in Dalian this season due to the typhoons down south and the school and teacher apartment construction is not ready. Being homeless and posessionless, and having just spent all summer travelling, I did not want to wait. So I am still leaving on August 20th, but will spend my first two months in Dalian in a four star hotel. The hotel is providing all my meals and I'll have a maid and transportation provided for me. Sounds like fun, but I imagine I will wear out from hotel life after a while. We'll see. I am happy to start in the hotel because I think it is closer to the downtown area, and I'll have more opportunities to meet people and see places. I have been told that I will be teaching some english in the morning and some art classes to a few students in August and September, before the regular schedule starts up.

At this point I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas, so I think that the leave day can't come soon enough. Equally though, it is very difficult saying goodbye to loved ones, friends and family, knowing that I won't see others for a while.

One final thought for today: I was originally going to have this site be solely for BOCES friends, students and staff and create a separate blog for family and friends outside of school. In reconsidering this, I think I was just making more work for myself than necessary. So, this site will be my only blog site- for everyone to read and enjoy! So I hope no one minds the formal Miss Finn heading, I am sure that I will change it after a while.