6 Months and Counting

Today is Christmas Eve! Which means if the trip dates don't shift, I am exactly 6 months and 2 days away from leaving for China. It also means I've been getting money from  the ol grandparents! Hallelujah I think I will have money to eat while I'm in China!
On my family's way into spokane to spend Christmas at my grandparents, my grandma called asking what my brother and I wanted for christmas. Since at that point all I could really think of were tickets to some sort of symphony or concert or something, we both pretty much said we don't konw, so my grandma's response was to say she would just give us both checks. And let's just say the number had a couple zero's  attached.

So then yesterday when my family went shopping my grandma tagged along just in case I found something I wanted to get. When we had be out for a little bit I realized I still needed a memory card for my camera so I could take pictures while I was in China. And I mean A LOT of pictures; I was thinking I'd take a couple hundred a day, multiplied by  9... so a memory card up to like 2000 pictures. When we got to Best Buy we headed to the camera section and found a card that holds 3000+, I told my mom and the guy I didn't think I need that many (the card was 40 bucks, which isn't much subtracted from those couple of zeros, but I still need money to eat while I'm there!) but they pressured me into it any way. I also got a USB drive that I can put my memory card into to allow me to put my pictures into any computer since I don't have a lab top.
Even with memory card, thumb drive, and a couple of sweaters in hand, my TOTAL Reserved For Eating and Tipping While in China Fund has reached $185.00. I'm starting to feel more comfortable about the whole trip.

HOWEVER, I still need a passport and visa! And recently I have been worried that I won't be able to access this blog in China. Ahhhhhhh! Getting ready for China is not an easy experience!

Chinese is hard!

Tonight I was feeling a little adventurous so I decided to try and learn a little Chinese. I figured I'd need to know the basics like "how much?"  "Thank you" "excuse me" I don't understand" and "I'll have...". I didn't think that'd be to hard! But man oh man, Chinese is nothing like english! the sounds they use are nothing like ours and so it takes me ten times for each phrase before I feel confident enough that if I continue to learn for 6 months I MIGHT be able to speak the language with a heavy accent. And you know what else? I'm probably learning this for nothing because I'm pretty sure most people over there know english, especially in the cities. But I want to be courteous so I'm putting myself through a little mouth torture. (No seriously....my jaw in hurting!!)

The more I think about my china trip the more I get nervous that something may happen to me. And not that I worry for myself, (I've had a great life!) but for my family. I know I sound silly  and quite morbid for worrying, but I'm just really worried my parents would see anything happening to me as a tragedy. Yes it would be sad, but I realize that I am not afraid to die. I'm at a nice point in my life where I'd LOVE to keep living, but if something happened, I'd be at peace as well. Man China is really having a strange affect on my thinking! Or maybe my morbid thoughts are from  reading And Then There Were None....hmm.

Any, I doubt anything will happen so no big deal!

oh and I almost forgot, I keep losing my URL so I'm just gonna put it on here where I know I can find it! http://jess-mytrips.blogspot.com

Count Down to China Trip Begins!

I've been thinking now for a while that I needed to start a blog so that while I'm in China my family and friends have a way of keeping track of me since while I'm gone, I will not be able to use my phone and Facebook is blocked in China. You wouldn't think that 9 days in a foreign country would be a big deal, but my Dad has expressed to me is deep concern about me being in china where he can't immediately get to me if I'm in trouble. So if he never got word of how my trip was going, I have this sinking feeling he'd spend every second of those 9 days worrying if I were alive or not. I decided to be a good daughter and help him not die from worry.

That brings me to now. It's December 1 and I am 6 months and like 26 days from my first transcontinental trip. In the next few months I will be attempting to get my passport, learn some basic Chinese like, "how much?", "thank you", "excuse me", and "where is the bathroom?". I'll also be needing to eventually get my visa but apparently I have to wait until 90 days before my trip, which sucks. 

Since the trip is still so far away, it still doesn't seem real to me. I have had one experience where our family trip to Costa Rica was cancelled as we waited for the flight, so I find myself bracing myself for disappointment and I try not to think about the trip too much. But those times when I let myself realize that in  a little over half of a year I will be standing on the Great Wall of China, ohh! I get goose bumps. That's something to get excited about!