The least important update so far.

I'm leaving for Costa Rica tomorrow. I'll post pictures, I swear.

Family Trip

I went up to PA with my mom and my brother yesterday. We spent the day at a cabin that my aunt and uncle rented. I had a great time. My grandparents were able to come, and so were some of my cousins. I haven't seen any of them (except my grandparents) for about 5 years or so, so it It was a good chance to catch up on things. My aunt and uncle gave me a nice little leather journal. I'll probably use it to write down things like recipes or other little things that I wouldn't bother putting in the blog. I got to talk to my cousins' husbands (cousin-in-laws?) and it turns out one of them has a friend who does missionary work in Kenya. He said that if I ever felt like working there I should let him know. I may have to take him up on that after I'm done in China, but I don't expect that to be a for a couple years. Overall I had a lot of fun seeing relatives that I haven't seen for a while. It didn't hit me till we were leaving that I might not see any of them for another couple years again. It was a weird feeling.

This weekend my brother and I will be leaving for Costa Rica to visit my Dad. I haven't seen him in about 3 years. We're going to spend two weeks down there, so we'll have plenty of time to sit around and talk. I still need to find out what to bring with me. If I can I'll bring my laptop and post updates while I'm down there.

Things I still need to do.
1. Ask the school LOTS of questions. I still no very little about what I'll be doing other than "teaching English." I also want to make sure they got all the paperwork from me that they'll need for a while. I don't want to be in Costa Rica and get an email asking for paperwork.
2. Learn more about China. I'll admit that I can be stupid at times, but I refuse to be ignorant. I want to know enough about China that I won't feel left out when people talk about the going-ons.
3. Get some pictures on here. The blog looks fairly sparse.
4. Tell people I know about the blog. For all I know, not a single person has read anything I've posted so far. :P
5. Check about online classes. I want to get my bachelors degree, but I still don't know how much it will end up costing me, or how I'll go about getting it in China.
6. I know I forgot something important... Darn.

I gots me a Job!

It's confirmed. I got the job in Wuhan. All the apprehension about teaching younger students is gone. I'm so excited I can't wait. I should be getting an email with the actual contract on Monday. Now I just need to focus on getting a work visa, selling my car, the trip to Costa Rica, getting a ticket to China...

I downloaded Skype yesterday. I used voicechats like Ventrillo when I played World of Warcraft, so I've known about Skype for a while. It was never practical for WoW though, so I did really payed it much attention. Now that I'm going to China I'll need a way to call home and Skype seems to be a great thing for that. I was testing it out tonight, and I got a message from a girl in China! I have no idea if this was a coincidence or not, but we messeged each other for a little bit. (No actual voice chat yet.) It's nice and a little bit reasurring to know that I've already got a friend over there. She lives a bit over 500 miles from where I'll be living, but it's still nice. I have a bad habit of falling out of contact with internet friends like her, but I'm resolving myself not to just disappear. That I've managed to keep my blog updated even this much is asstounding to me.

The First Best Day of the Summer.

I got what is basically my first job offer today. If I go for it, I'll end up working at Wuchang Experimental Primary School. I'm kind of apprehensive about the thought of teaching five, six, and seven year olds, but everyone tells me that I'm good with kids. I'm more than happy to teach them, but the closer I get to going to China the more nervous I get about how well I'll do. I dunno. I asked my placement adviser if there was anything closer to high school level. I think I'd have an easier time teaching that age group.

I've been on Google Earth for about an hour now. I'm not sure where in Wuhan the school is, but I've been looking at a lot of pictures of the surrounding area. It's a very nice looking city. Wikipedia has also been helpful. Because of it, I now know that the city of Wuhan ALONE has about 8 times as many people as my entire STATE! Thats right. One city has more people than all of West Virginia. That's rather daunting.

So far today, I've come up with two new frightening realizations.
1. I'm going to have to learn the metric system. This isn't much of a big deal, but it's just one more thing that I'll have to memorize.
2. Wuhan is probably the hottest city in China. The average temperature in July is about 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Being a port city, I bet it's also very humid. I don't mind the sticky feeling, but I always feel like other people know I'm sticky and that creeps me out.
3. (Yes, another) I'm going to be in Costa Rica for two weeks this summer. Unless I stop off at net-cafes or something, I may have trouble getting some things set up. Oh well. I'll deal with that when I get to that.

Now that things are happening again, I can start updating more often. Joy!