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!