It's actually happening - I'm going to China!

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So let me tell you about my past week.

On Tuesday October 15 2013, I received an email from the China National Tourist Office (CNTO) in Sydney. I work for the tour company Selective Tours, that operates tours in China, Vietnam, India and Nepal. And this email was inviting one representative of our company to the China International Travel Mart in Kunming in Yunnan Province in China! After two days at the Travel Mart, the CNTO would take our representative, along with other Australian travel company and media representatives, on a four day tour of the province.

The itinerary stated that the representative would depart Sydney on Wednesday, October 23. That's right, just 15 DAYS away.

I forwarded the email to my Managing Director, assuming she would be our company's representative. But then, to my surprise and delight, she asked me if I would like to go!

However, because I'm relatively new to the company and it would also be really beneficial for her to go to meet with our suppliers at the Travel Mart, we decided to ask if we could send two representatives. We were initially told no, but then they got back to us the next day and said actually, we can have an extra person! (Hooray!)

There was only one problem.

I didn't have a valid passport.

You would think that this is something I'd make sure to have, working at a travel company. But my passport had unfortunately JUST expired (on October 7th) and I had been thinking about renewing it, I just hadn't done it yet. I didn't think I'd be needing to travel on such short notice. So on October 9th, I quickly went to the post office, filled out my renewal form, and sent it off via the passport rush service. So I picked it up yesterday morning and now my passport is at the China visa office and I'm going to China in 8 DAYS.

It's crazy. But so exciting. It definitely hasn't sunk in yet, and I doubt it will until I am on the plane!

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