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Entry #3: 10 days before the trip
Finalizations
If you didn't get the pun, it's final exam week here at UMD. Granted I only have 2 exams (2 and a half if you count short papers), but nature decided to bless me with my first cold in 2 years this Monday. Instead of studying, I've been sleeping, downing grapefruit juice, and blowing my nose 24/7. Fantastic. Oh well, first exam was pretty easy and my project grades already guaranteed a B even if I failed it.
Finalizations have also begun on the trip, just a few more things to take care of. We've paid for our tour, and are just finishing up booking it. However, it just wouldn't be a trip if things didn't go wrong at the last minute. Kevin's passport has expired, and they mailed the new one to the wrong address. We're expecting it to arrive on Monday, and the tour people need it by Tuesday to arrange our domestic flights. Hopefully nothing gets screwed up in the mail this time, fingers crossed. The poor guy still needs to get his Chinese visa. And I thought the DMV has long lines.
The Tour
If you're at all interested in the tour we will be taking, it's a pretty standard deal. It's called a "Golden Triangle" tour, touching the 3 major cities for tourism: Beijing, Shanghai, and Xi'an. It hits a majority of the things you'd expect to see on a tour of China: the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, a bunch of tombs and stuff. It includes performances such as the Tang dynasty show (no idea...) and acrobatics, as well as some famous dinners. The dumpling feast in Xi'an is of particular interest to me. I'm looking forward to learning how to make dumplings actually, they somehow make everything more delicious. I can hardly think of anything I wouldn't put in a dumpling as it is. I wonder if anyone makes dumplings filled with more dumplings, kind of like a Turducken. Maybe I'm on to something...
The city we will be staying at after the tour ends is called Suzhou, which lies directly west of Shanghai. An excellent choice in my opinion, as it is an area of modern development with the traditional culture still in full display. I imagine I will have no difficulty finding new friends to exchange language with there. A pity my mother will not be joining me, as Suzhou is known for its famous gardens. I'm sure she can live vicariously through my pictures anyway. Some call it the "Venice of the East" due to the waterways that run through the city which can be traversed by boat. I can't believe it's all less than two weeks away, how exciting!
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Yan
non-member comment
:)
Really look forward to the days you are in China, hoping everything would go well, especially Kevin's passport and visa.