email reprint

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Ni hao from Beijing!

Sorry for the mass email, but you have to admit, haven't sent one out all summer 😊

Where to begin? Have been in China for two months now. There are countdown clocks everywhere: the Olympics start in 10 days on 8.08.08 at 8 o'clock.

Eight is an auspicious number. Four is an unlucky number . So, for instance, when you buy a cell phone here, you also get to choose your phone number. Numbers with 8's and without 4's cost more than phone numbers with 4's. Also, right now we're dogsitting on the 22nd floor of an apartment. But, because 4 is unlucky, they skip the 4 floors. Goes floor 1,2,3,5,...13,15...23,25, etc. Not all apartments or office buildings are like this, but that's just one example of the Chinese cultural psyche.

My younger brother, Ben, is here with me. This is the summer before his senior year of high school. He went on the Europe trip with Mme Shields - first time out of the USA - and then he flew from Rome to Beijing to join me here. Also, Arielle had the opportunity to visit me for 3 weeks in July from her home in Mexico City. The first time I travelled to China was with Arielle the summer after our freshman year at Bryn Mawr, 2002, and we taught English in Dongguan. The country had just won the bid for the Games and they were already selling Olympic paraphernalia. We decided then and there that we would be in Beijing during the summer of 2008.

Sharing Beijing with my family has been awesome. Am so glad that it worked out and that they have finally been able to see what it is that I've been ranting and raving about for so long. Ben and I are here until Aug 15 when we both return to the States. He'll begin his senior year at CHS and his sister...

... will head to Nicaragua! Land of lakes and volcanoes, hells yeah!

As many of you are well aware, I applied to the Peace Corps about 10 months ago. After enough red tape to stretch from Missourah to Beijing and back, I have finally received an invitation to serve, and I have accepted. My training begins Sept 1st in DC and three days later I'm headed down to Central America to begin service in Nicaragua as an "Agricultural Extentionist" in the northern mountains. More info about the PC and Nicaragua can be found here: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=learn.wherepc.centralamerica.Nicaragua

Am very excited to join the Corps in Central America. PCV service is for 27 months. 3 months of in-country training and then 24 months of service. Am most certainly looking forward to getting my Spanish back and then surpassing my current abilities and becoming fluent in the language. Here in Beijing it is easy to become complacent with just enough Chinese "to get by".

Am also looking forward to living in a foreign country and working with my hands, working with the land, and NOT teaching English. I like kids. I like working with kids. I like being a mentor. I love to coach. But I do not particularly like teaching English and I am so relieved that I essentially get to be a farmer.

So, that's that. There's still more beauracracy to navigate from China; will be getting to know the American Embassy here pretty well as my Govt passport needs to be processsed asap. And there will be precious little time at home in Missourah between Beijing madness and becoming a PCV to get a lot of the paperwork done, spend time with my family, and, oh, repack my bags 😊

Hope this finds you all well! Travel updates, photos and blogs and can still be found at mytb.org/mbaade

in overdrive,
-molly

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Comments

[Cassi]

Countdown
3 more days! I can't wait to read what you write!