Summer Update

As I had no access to blogspot while I was in mainland China, I opted to use a different blog to keep up with my travel posts.  Here is the link to my summer travels blog: http://mahuili.tumblr.com/

12 days to go...

Right now, as I am getting comfortable into my work and being with my family and friends, I am honestly at a point where I feel reluctance about going to China.  I am quite sure that as it grows a little closer ( maybe a few days before I go) I will become more excited about it but as for right now I just kind of wonder why I signed up for all of this lol... I am so blessed to be able to go and have wanted to visit China for a long time but now I am wondering why I didn't choose a simpler life of being at home with family and friends and working closer to home maybe even schooling closer to home (if schooling at all).  I guess you 'don't know what you got til it's gone' and I am sure that if I gave up this opportunity just because things would be 'easier' I would be saying the same thing.

The Beginning of This Adventure

My adventures this summer happen well before I leave for China; they happen now, as I prepare myself mentally, physically and spiritually for the adventure that I will soon embark on.  In just 19 short days I will be catching my flight to China and preparing for the first half of my adventure, in which  i will be taking a third semester in studying the Chinese language, but this time I will be doing it in China!  I also have some pre-class work to consider and complete before I leave involving the Canadian education system and allowing for comparison between the Chinese and Canadian education systems.  I have been traveling back to all of my childhood schools to take pictures for visual prompts for my presentation in China and it feels so strange to walk down these hallways of my elementary, middle and high school.  Seeing places where I used to sit and spend time with friends and thinking back to many memories and experiences that I have had, but also seeing how different these places are and the people who attend and teach in them.  It's such a surreal feeling; like going back in time and standing in the very places that you once grew and learned so much.