Visa Vocation

The adventure to pick up the visa started at 4:40 in the morning when Alissa my navigator for this trip. The both of us a little woozy started driving to Houston. We had to get to the embassy early in order to get the visa pocessed in one day.

Can you imagine a 4 hour car ride at 5 a.m? Well if you are thinking is odd music, slow conversation and pretty colors from the sunrise then you are correct! I was disapointed from the sunrise on the road. Usually sunrises have many colors and solar specticals but this morning the day just got lighter. The beauty was from the early fog that rolled across fields and seemed to envelop the buildings and trees.

One thing I will say about Houston is that the road signs are worse than Austin. I thought it was just Austin and them being "weird" that did not believe in clear road signs but Houston was worse! Freeways not well marked, turns hardly indicated... It did not turn out to be the hardship that it first appeared to be. The directions were simple, the embassy was easy to find. What was annoying in transversing the Houston area was the traffic. I should only expect that at 7:30 in the morning downtown Houston will be full of traffic but I did not and thus suprised.

Once at the embassy we waited around outside for it to open. I was told that the embassy would have large ques an long waits. The only trouble I had with the visa application was I never seemed to have the right paperwork. As soon as I filled out one paper I was sent back to do it again, then sent back for not making copies. Why this was not mentioned the first time I have no idea. 6 times through the line I was told to return at 2:30 to pick up and pay for the Visa. A kind lady standing next to me gave me a tip to bring cash as the embassy does not accept credit cards.

I can not begin to express how grateful I was for this information. The lady behind the counter did not mention this, there was no sign above the cashier window that stated they do not accept credit cards. Government paperwork is expensive, who carries hundreds of dollars on them?

So what to do with the rest of the day? How do you kill a day in houston? THE ZOO! Alissa and I went off to the Zoo. A wonderful way to spend $10. Hours of fun watching baby orangatangs play with a bucket or groundhogs fighting over lettuce. Monkeys chasing each other bears bathing. It was a wonderful day. The zoo is nothing like the San Diego Zoo I remember as a child but it was marvolous fun. The day went by quickly and before we knew it we had to go back and pick up the visa. 10 min in the embassy and I have a Visa to China. It felt somewhat unclimatic but a relief as we could now start to drive home.

On the road back it started to hit us that none of us had eaten since breakfast. It is 4 somthing in the afternoon and the last we ate was before 10 am... HUNGRY! So where do you eat when you are driving down I-10? The choice is not great as all there is down I-10 is small towns and the Whataburger that seems to infest every road side stop. The idea of greasy fast food after eating nothing all day long seemed not only like an unpalitable option but suicide. Before you think that we did settle for nasty food we stoped at the BEST thing a small Texas town has to offer, BBQ. The best BBQ in the world has no commericials, chains, or mass fame, The best BBQ in the world is in the small towns in Texas. The place we stopped at was small, only 30 tables. Decorated with the head of ironically half the animals we saw at the zoo that day. But the food was unbelievable. A plate of 3 different meats with corn, potato salad and a bowl of bannana pudding with drinks for under 15$. A mess of bread, onions and pickles and Alissa and I stuffed ourselves sick but it was worth it.

A little while longer and hey, we are home!

Connecting to the Chinese

In the last few weeks I have been jobless, as such I am doing the best I can to prepare for the year ahead of me. I got a hold of a set of pimsleur Learn Mandarin Chinese. A side note for anyone who is looking to learn a language for work or fun Pimsleur is the BEST solution out there. It does not teach the best vocabulary but what you learn you know. You learn to think in the new language instead of just repeating memorized phrases.

But that is enough of that. But I have been working hard to prepare. I have been studying Chinese. Also the act of searching the internet for new penpals has paid off and made many new friends in Wuhan, Bejing, Shanghai, well basically all over China. People to practice Chinese with, people to learn the culture from. It has been wonderful to learn so much from them. I have also been told that I will likely be the ONLY American at the University. I can only hope!

Also as I am jobless it means I have a lot of time on my hands. As such I have been looking to improve other skills. I have een learning magic tricks. After all magic is a great ice breaker, and an international language. Everyone likes a magician right? I know two tricks, but there is much more to learn!

I learned about cell phones in China. I definantly need one, according to my Chinese friends. And it does not sound expensive. My friends told me it is not expensive. So hopefully it transferes to American Dollars.

I have made doctors appointments and a trip to go get a visa. I have tickets. I am getting webcams for myself and family. Seems like there is nothing left but to go!

Wow, I really am going to China

I know it is a bit of an odd title but it is what I am feeling right now. It just started to hit that wow, I am going to China. I have insurance, I have started to make friends. I am starting to learn Chinese. I know its a bit late to START learning Chinese... It is kind of scary to think wow, I am really going to do this. I am going to leave my world, everything I know on the idea that it would be fun to go to a whole new culture, whole new language, a whole new land.



I honestly do not know if I can hack it but it is too late to turn back now. I have the acceptance letter, I have plane tickets, I have insurance. Im about to go get a visa...



i am not that worried anymore about being alone. I signed onto a dozen different penpal sites and just started emailing a ton of different Chinese kids about my age. Now I have friends in Bejing, Nanchang, Shanghai and Wuhan. New friends to help me learn about the culture, learn about the food, help with the language and keep me from feeling so forign. However I do get a lot of odd questions. "Why go to Wuhan? Why not Bejing or Shanghai like all the other Americans?"

A note about medical studies

for anyone who has concidered medical studies, DO them! this is the greatest h*** i have ever been in. i sit here for 13 days play cards, pool, computer games. the only downside, bad food, no freedom, no privacy, no outside. but for $3700... Heck yea! i do miss the outside world. bit i was able to get a lot of things accomplished while incarcerated. I registered my trip with the embassy, started to study chinese.

It dawned on me last night that I will know no one in in china. Well that sounded so lonely. I had to think of a way to aliveate that. So I spent hours sending emails to every penpal listing in wuhan fro, every penpal place I coud find. I must of signed up with 10 different penpal sites, and emailed about 50 different people. And it is starting to pay off. Already I am getting replies from people. So this looks like it is working. I may have some friends so I do not have to be in china without any connections.

the internet is glorious isnt it? I could not imagine a world without it.

The Beginning

This is just the first blog. Im new to blogging so this is sort just a how to get a feel for how the whole system works. Right now I am in a hospital bed participating in a medical research study to pay for this trip to China. But as that has nothing to do with anything than a really easy source of a few thousand dollars.
So to introduce myself and this adventure in a little bit more detail. I am a student at Texas State University Studying Aquatic Biology, with the aim of becomming a high school biology teacher. Because I am in a BA program I have to take a conciderable amount of language. I have already studied French for many years and the tought of taking Spanish, which in my opinion is dirty French, or other language so similar I thought silly. I started to learn a little about studying abroad and earning the credit that way. After a week or two of searching the internet I found out that Asia is REALLY cheap to study in, unlike Europe. School, Cost of living, Airfare, etc... its all cheaper in Asia. S. America is cheap but Spanish is last on my list of languages to learn. I really could not tell you why I have a predjudice against Spanish, most my family speaks it, well that might be it, I really don't know.
After a month of searching I discovered Wuhan University, by far the most beautiful university I have ever seen. With the tuition of roughly $2000 US for a year. Besides not speaking a word of Chinese, not knowing a thing about Chinese culture, not knowing anyone in the country. To be quite honest all I know about China is what I have seen in Jackie Chan movies. So besides that there is no reason not to go right?
Here let me list why I am going.

5. I need language credit, A year abroad will cover it
4. Its something other than French
3. I've never been to China
2. It's Cheap
1. Why not?

You may find it silly but honestly I think "Why Not" is the best reason to leave home for a year to the complete opposite of the world. People always say that youth is wasted on the young. How many country songs say to "don't blink" "Dont let the world pass you by?" This is what youth is about, I have my whole life to work, live in one place and do that whole suberbia. I have the time to venture now. I have the money to go. I have the youth to think a year that could possibly mean no hot water, malfunctioning laundry machines, 110 degree year around temperature change, a place where you could not drink the tap water, and a place where I speak not a word of the local language sounds like an awsome adventure that could not be passed up!

Well I think that is enough for one night.