I spent eight hours today loading songs on my ipod. I plan to purchase an inexpensive speaker system to play songs from the ipod when I get to Chengdu. It looks like I will be able to get about 1000 songs loaded. It will be nice to have music in the apartment. Two days ago I finished writing all the labs I hope to use in Chengdu. I took all my favorite labs, most of which were hand written or photocopies, and typed them up as word documents. Just for fun I added some graphics to the labs such as dragons, Chinese symbols, and pictures of Chairman Mao. It is great to have all the labs as documents! Now I can edit them as needed and have made many improvements. I am laying out all of the rocks and minerals I plan to take with me and am a bit nervous about the weight. I have about 75 pounds of samples to haul all the way to China! I will definitely need an extra bag or two at check in. The school will pay for extra bags but it will be a real chore carting the extra bags and weight through airports and customs. I hope there isn't a problem with all the rocks in customs. I have been in contact with my Chinese mentor Mrs. Cathy Hu and am thinking about renting or purchasing an electric bike wile in China. That would be a great way to get around in the area where I live. I plan to spend weekends in parks and tea houses. I am fortunate to have Mrs. Hu as my mentor, she lives in the same building as I will, and I know her from PCDS. She was the exchange teacher here in Phoenix last spring. I got to know her on the seventh grade field trip to the Grand Canyon. It will be nice to have a familiar face in China. I have my plane tickets and the work visa will be here in one week. I am so excited! Dell also has her tickets and will come stay with me from Sept 22 through Oct. 12. Dell has emailed Cathy Hu about shopping! I guess that is culture of a sort. It will be so nice to have Dell with me in the middle of my stay. I am going to look into taking the brand new train to Lhasa with Dell while she is visiting.
More Later,
J. Bob