Hey! We've moved and stuff.

So uh....

Blogspot blogs are kind of difficult to reach in the China. As in, they are sort of banned.

So it'll be easier for me to update my NEW blog!

http://abbyinthebox.wordpress.com

hurrah! see you there. tell you friends. &c.

Recent Happenings

Since writing over a month ago, I have had adventures!

July 5-8

The first was a three day train journey from Atlanta to Washington DC to Chicago to Denver to Cheyenne. woo!

It was actually a lot of fun. The train from Atlanta to Washington was only a single-decker and was quite crowded and the bathrooms weren't as nice, but the other two were double-deckers and were quite swanky for someone used to travelling coach class on an airplane.

Highlights of the trip!

Washington: National Zoo safari with my awesomepants black felt hat, Lunch at Union Station with tasty Indian food, and a much too short excursion to the museum of American History.

Chicago: wandered from Union Station down to some sort of waterfront park, watched a segway tour scoot by, Mennonite-watching.

Train-wise: Eating in the diner car, having two chairs to myself from Chicago-Denver, eating peanut butter with chocolate chips straight from the jar for hours, watching America roll by.

Then, we had a Yellowstone trip!

July 19-26

family picture! Convinced Mom and Dad to go on a 7 hour hike, and this is the view (from lunch. There were many views)!

Oh! and we got chased by a buffalo. Not this buffalo, but you get the idea.

And we met up with our parents' first landlord (by appointment) and one of my parent's friends from like 20 years ago (by chance).

So, yeah.

Now we're just chilling in Cheyenne. Frontier Days are on which basically is like a fair and a rodeo and everyone wears cowboy hats. I think it might be a big deal or something.

12 days til China!

Two months to go!

In exactly two months, thirteen hours, and fifteen minutes or so, I will be arriving in Beijing, China!

Hoorah!

Everything is getting more and more official, which is really exciting. I've been filling out lots of paperwork, and should be seeing the fruits of my labor soon when my official visa gets back to me in a few weeks (hopefully).

Meanwhile, I've been having lots of fun with such things as getting tested for HIV at the local Health Department. I have to be clear before I can get my residence permit. The nice nurse lady at the Health Department was... rather confused (So, what you're saying is you've never really done anything to put you at risk for HIV? -um, no. I'm really rather boring. -So, why are you here again?)

I "met" three of my "Team China" buddies via the internet this week. One seems to be a recent college grad like myself and the other two are an older, married couple. It's hard to tell what people are like over the internet though, so I guess I'll just have to wait to meet them in China as one lives in Oregon and the other two are in Texas.

So, yeah... I guess that's all.

News of the Day

Today I got a phone call from the man in charge of the China program I've been talking about in theoretical sense for a long time. He was just calling to... invite me to be part of the TIP facilitator team next year!

So, now I am officially going to start my blog as I have some semblance of "this is probably what I am going to do next year."

And, I should be getting an official email this next week that is more..."official" and will have lots of delightful forms for me to fill out.

I can't wait...

(Not even sarcastically, I'm actually kind of excited!)

Why write a blog?

...because facebook is banned in China, simply put. It seems like having a blog might be a good way to keep up with all the friends and family that are stuck stateside (or other various, far-flung countries). And, I can show everyone the exciting and fun-tastic time I am having in China! So that's why.

You may be wondering what I am going to be doing in China. I am kind of wondering that myself. I am going to be teaching conversational English to English teachers in China through a program called TIP (Total Immersion Program)with a group called ESEC (Education Exchange Services China). The group is interdenominational Christian, but the focus is on teaching English and building relationships with Chinese people.

I'm going to be working in Beijing (on the outskirts it seems), and I'm going to be there for a year, from sometime relatively soonish to a year after that.

Anyways, that's all the information I can think of at the moment. If I think of anything else, I shall post it!

Hurrah for going to China!