Preparations Nearly Complete; Date Set

So now that all my visa stuff is in the mail (including my cool Chinese work permit that I totally can't read except for the phrases 中国 - China, 北京- Beijing, and 工作 - work), I finally booked my ticket. I'll be leaving at 10:01 am from Madison, Wisconsin on August 22, 2006 and arriving in China at 9:00 pm on August 23, 2006 after three flights and brief layovers in Chicago and Seoul, South Korea. Due to this sudden thrust into traveling responsibility, the reality of the trip is starting to set in. The four most extreme ideas follow:

1) Won't know anybody except for my boss (and perhaps Mr. Michael Neuenfeldt if he can find a job in the Beijing area);

2) won't be able to read much of anything (I've been trying to learn 10 to 20 Chinese characters per day. I think I'm up to about 100 in total. At this rate, I'll be literate in about 6 months . . . provided that grammar comes to me automatically through immersion);

3) still don't know exactly what I'll be doing for my work - it involves numbers, I think.

4) I'll be leaving all of my current friends (again, excepting the possible Neuenfeldt) my family.

The associated emotions: Fear, excitement, trepidation, anxiety (not necessairly with the bad connotation), and quite a bit of that wonder that comes along with beginning a completely foreign adventure; it is actually very hard to separate the jittery excitement from the fear when I slow down and actually pay attention to the feelings. Beyond these pervading sentiments, sadness that my college career is ending, a little premature nostalgia about the good times that I've had with my friends, and some meloncholy about the fact that I won't see my family for a while are the other thoughts and emotions that have crossed me.

But enough of that mushy gushy stuff. This sounds more like a diary entry than a blog. I'll leave off for now (probably until just before I leave, or until after I arrive).

再见
(I hope you all can read these characters and aren't just seeing stupid little boxes . . . that would be unfortunate)