Last Day in Naptown

It is my last day in Indiana, and I can barely believe it's real!  As I finish packing my under-50lb suitcase (most of the weight is peanut butter, 3 different types of Reese's, popcorn, and jello for my host family, although Coconut really wanted to help lighten the load), I am starting to feel nervous for the first time.  I found out recently who my host family is, but as I have not been able to contact them, I don't know whether I have a sibling or not; I really hope so since I plan on getting most of my cultural cues from him or her.  I am so excited to experience a lifestyle totally different from my usual.

At www.greatfirewallofchina.org you can test any website and see if it is censored in China.  It was kind of fascinating for me to check all of the social networking sites and note the extent to which China monitors the internet.

6 Days Until Kung Fu Panda City

Only 6 days remain until I leave for China! I will be staying with a host family and attending school daily to study Chinese for six weeks, via the NSLI-Y program, which offers full scholarships to students to learn less-commonly studied foreign languages overseas.  I am unrestrainedly hyped as I have been preparing for this trip since last October.  As of now, I know I will be living in Chengdu with 14 million of my closest friends (almost double the size of New York), but I still have no idea in whose home I will be living.

My white board as I study characters so I won't totally be confounded