Leaving for China

Tomorrow morning bright and early Matthew and I are heading to the airport for our flight. I'm all packed and I'm starting to feel like 'was it really my idea to go to China for five months?' I'm not sure it was such a good idea now. I know once I get there I will be really happy to be there and it will be really fun. The last couple of days I've spent saying goodbye to people and packing and cleaning my room from the move back home. It has been hard and yesterday I wasn't sure I was going to get it all done. Today I'm feeling better about that aspect but I'm worried about what's going to happen when I get to China. Everyone I know or have talked to who has been to China have had a wonderful time. Saying goodbye makes it really hard to go. I went over to Papa's, my grandfather, today before I left so that I could say good bye when he was really awake. I told him today if he didn't go south, he doesn't like the cold weather, I'd see him when I get back in June. I really don't know if I will though. That is the hard part about going. I just don't know if I'll see him again or not. The time I have spent with him since he has been back in North Carolina has meant so much to me. There are so many things I didn't know about my grandfather and know that I know him better I'm really going to miss him.

Last night it really started snowing so by the time my parents, Jonpaul and I got back from Papa's it was getting think enough it looked like it might be difficult to get to the airport today. This morning I had to get last minute papers for my Rotary scholarship and graduate school application ready. We took Ruff for his walk around the property in the snow. It was nice to get out one last time in the snow.

When my parents and I left they still hadn't plowed the road we live on. When we got to the main road it was pretty much okay. Getting to Matthew's dad's was a bit dicey as his road wasn't plowed and it was icy. Dad made it though. On the way out we had to get out the kitty litter and spread that so we could get traction. We stopped and had a nice dinner at a Japanese place. It was way to much food but it was good. We did make it to the hotel we are staying at for the night. I'm glad we decided not to try and drive it tomorrow morning that would have been questionable as it is supposed to be cold tonight. I just hope that our flight isn't delayed tomorrow morning.

Matthew running to catch up with the car after we got going again.

How to post pictures on Bloger using email posting

Yes this is something else I am trying to figure out. So like earlier this is a test and may get deleted if I don't say something interesting. This is a picture of Ruff in the cat bed his favorite place at my grandfathers. Alright sending and seeing if it works.

test

I'm seeing if the email posting works as this is what I will be using when I am traveling.

Moving

Today I finally got moved out of the apartment. I moved out most of my stuff on Monday and Tuesday we moved large stuff of Matthew's. Wednesday we moved small stuff of Matthew's. Thursday we packed up everything else and on Friday we had the walk through. It was a long week. I'm just glad the moving part of it is mostly over. I really liked our apartment but I keep telling myself about all the things I didn't like so I won't be sad about leaving it. Like the paint job, it was horrible. The heating system. The radiators really liked to talk, and not quietly they liked to be heard and mostly in the middle of the night when I wanted to be sleeping. The water pressure was not so good it took about five minutes for the hot water to get to the top floor. That was a pain if you wanted to be fast. The main thing now is getting my room at home organized so it doesn't look like a disaster zone when I leave.

My lovely living room

Thursday I went to the last Rotary meeting I will be going to before I leave. It was good to go and I think that with time I could really get to understand the club. It is hard as most of the members are older men. They don't really know what to think of me, a young woman, and I don't know what to think of them. We are so different. They do have a song which they sing before the meeting starts. That is fun. This week that a song called "Rotary, Rotary" sung to the tune of Edelweiss. I enjoy this part as it reminds me of the Arthur Morgan School, which was the middle school I attended. I think that I have everything ready with my sponsor for my trip to China so that he doesn't get worried about me being gone. At least I sure hope I have everything ready. I need to be ready.

My Bedroom which is no more

Tonight I went to my grandfather's with my parents. It was a nice meal. Papa was more together and it was good to talk with him and actually not have to guess at what he was saying. I'm not very good at guessing as he is often random or it has to do with the Westerns he is watching. I don't really like the Westerns and thus miss what he is referring to sometimes. He knows that I'm leaving and he keeps asking if I'll be back. He says "Is this the last time I'll see you?" He doesn't think he will live until I get back. It is so hard to say if he will or not. One day I think he will and the next I think that he won't. I know that in some ways he really doesn't want to live that long and in others he does. I do realize though that when I leave for China I will be saying Good-bye for the last time most likely.

Last day of work

Today was my last day at work. In some ways it was sad but I can't say that I'm going to miss the job, it'll be the people I miss. Recently it has been really cold at work. I went in the fridge one day and it felt warm. I thought this can't be right but it really was warmer in the fridge than out. I'm not going to miss the cold one bit. When I was getting ready to leave Teel and Tyler told me I couldn't leave yet and they got out the whip cream. Let's just say I needed a shower when Teel was done with me.

It was really a day of good byes. I originally thought it wouldn't be hard to leave, but there are lots of people I have to say good bye to. It was my last violin lesson. I've been taking lessons for a year with Neil and I have really gotten into the habit of having my lesson. I'm going to miss it when I'm in China. I'm not taking my violin as I would be really upset if it was stolen as it was my grandmother's. I'm going to be trying to find one when I'm there. Hopefully it won't be to hard to find as I really want to keep playing.

Matthew and I also had our last Chinese lesson. It was a good lesson as we were reading stories or short little songs. It was nice as I got more of a feel for the language that way. Tonight is Matthew's last night working, he still has day shifts. I think that the night shift was something he really didn't like. I can't say I liked him working it that much but that is over now.

Hair Cut

So I just started feeling like my hair was too long. It has been taking me 10 to 15 minutes to brush. I don't have time to sit there and go through the pain, yes sometimes it hurts, of getting the knots out. My mom cut 10-11 inches off and I thought it was going to be really short but it isn't as short as I thought it would be. I think that because it is really dry it isn't curling as much as normal. It is about shoulder length now and I have to say I really like it. The real reason for cutting my hair on such short notice was because I was getting my visa and I wanted my picture to have hair similar to what it was going to be like in China. I was planning on getting it cut once I got there but I just sped up the process a little.

I went home after I was at the Rotary orientation. It was nice to go. The pond was frozen so we went skating. I haven't been skating on our pond since I was little. I think it was about 10 years ago. I don't really remember though. I thought I was really going to take a face plant or do something stupid like lean back and fall but it came back pretty fast. The ice wasn't that smooth around some of the edges but it was still nice. I forgot how skating can be a work out and even on our little pond it was more than I had anticipated. It was really fun skating. We skated in the morning and it was nice to be able to see what was what. Last night when we were skating I had a slight collision with a branch over hanging the pond.

Me skating on the pond a.k.a. walking on water

Tonight was the holiday party at work. I didn't expect to have a good time but I did. It was nice to see everyone out of uniform and to get to know them better. I guess for me it was a little late as my last day at work is Sunday the 17th. A week from today. I'm pretty excited about going to China.

Rotary Orientation

This Friday and Saturday were the Rotary Orientation for Ambassadorial Scholars, Peace Scholars, and others. Friday I headed out to Winston-Salem. When I got there and was heading to the hotel I found that google maps wanted to send me on a one way street the wrong way. I ended up parking in public parking and walking a block to the hotel and then finding out that there was parking across the street. It did work out for the best but I was a little bit cold and didn't think so at the time.

When I got there I put my stuff in my room and registered with Rotary. I made it with the last people going to lunch. We got a bit turned around. The lunch wasn't that great and I was really hungry but the time half of the presentations were over and it was still 3 hours until dinner. While I didn't get as much from the presentations as I would have liked. I found that there was good information in all of them. What was best for me was meeting the other scholars. I met lots of people who were in the same place as me and it was nice to be able to share with them. I roomed with a girl from the same district. We are the two scholars from the district. She doesn't know where she is going yet. It was nice to talk with her though.

Saturday was more lectures. I thought that some of what was discussed on Saturday was more helpful than what was talked about on Friday. After the lectures I ate a hurried lunch and headed home. My car didn't have heat so it was really cold. It wasn't to bad in Winston-Salem but by the time I got up to the mountains I couldn't feel my feet.

Shots

Yesterday I went to the Travel Health Clinic of Western North Carolina. I thought that I would be getting two shots but I ended up getting 4. Let me say that again, I GOT FOUR SHOTS. It was not fun. On top of the shots for China I had tetanus updated and I got a shot for H1N1 as China is a little up tight about people entering the country how have a temperature. Don't want to take any chances with it. I also got Japanese Encephalitis and Typhoid. The shot for Typhoid had to be given in a muscle all by itself so they had to give it to me in my butt. Let me tell you I felt like a poor injured bird. My left arm had two shots, my right one and my butt one. They only left me one limb without a shot. After they gave me the shots they asked me to stay 10 to 15 minutes so that if I had an allergic reaction they could epi-pen me. Yet another shot. I didn't need it. Thanks a lot though for the thought. I did feel like I was running a low fever last night. A mild side affect of all the shots. Boy oh boy am I glad I'm traveling.

Today my left arm is still really hurting. I can't lift it or it really hurts. My butt still hurts as well. It was a rough night trying to sleep I couldn't get comfortable. That and I worked at 6:45am. So right about the time I got comfortable and was drifting off the alarm went off. As they know I'm leaving in two weeks they are coming up with all kinds of stuff to give me a hard time about. It isn't very hard early in the morning when I'm still tired and can't form coherent sentences. They don't heat the back at work so it is really cold. It hasn't been above freezing here in 4 or so days. My car's heat only works periodically so I have about 15 minutes of shaking on my way to work. I tell myself I can make it and then I think it is so damn cold I should just stay inside. That's what I did this afternoon. I stayed inside and walked up and down the hallway for exercise. Not very good exercise but at least it was something. There are snow flakes every once in a while. I haven't been able to figure out if it is snowing or if the wind is just blowing the snow from the ground around.

I applied for another job in Kunming today. Although I haven't heard from anyone yet at least I'm getting out there. It is starting to look like I'm really going. Well, our apartment is rented already so we can't stay here so we have to go somewhere. We still need plane tickets and visas but we are making progress. Thus explaining the pain in my ass.

New Year

Unfortunately, I have a cold and didn't feel great. I had to work on the 31st. I got off before midnight. I was exhausted even though they gave me zipfizz. It did help me stay awake, but by the time I worked 9 hours I was ready to go home and go to bed. The event at work had red roses which they used petals on the tables. They had left over Roses so I got to take some home. They are really pretty. I stayed up until 12 said Happy New Year to Matthew and went to sleep. So much for excitement.

Today I went and saw Avatar with my family. It was a much better movie than I had anticipated. I really enjoyed it. We saw the 3-D version. My brothers thought it was like a longer non animated version of Princess Monenoke. After some thought I agree with them. Before the Movie mom and I went and looked at suit cases for me and sheets for her. We were shocked by the price at JC Penny's. $250 for a suit case with not many extras. We ended up going to TJ Maxx and finding everything we needed. I got a pretty blue rolling suit case for the trip to China and my scholarship with Rotary. Side note Matthew and I gave notice for our apartment. We are moving out on the 25th. Hence the suit case for the trip to China. We have been looking for jobs in Kunming without much luck so far.

After the movie we all went to Zen Sushi the Japanese place by The Hop, ice cream, and Urban Burrito. It was a good choice for us as we had a snack before the movie.