CHINA

"The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see." ~G.K. Chesterton



"I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad."
George Bernard Shaw



Without travel "I would have wound up a little ignorant white Southern female, which was not my idea of a good life." -- Lauren Hutton

Learning the Magnificent Chinese!

Tonight I finally sat down and decided I wanted to learn Chinese and I realized I need to. Eventually, I want to speak it fluently. I always notice my parents are happy to see me learining it, but wish they could. It is fascinating to me how hard it can be to say one simple word in Chinese. When we move it is going to be a challenge, but I will be fine. As long as I know the simple things at first. At my school everyone has to take a Chinese class so that is where I will learn a lot. I'm excited and want to learn more and more each day and hopefully will.

"If you can speak three languages you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language you're an American." ~Author Unknown

Every second of everyday that past means my family and I are one step closer to our Amazing adventure to China. Are house has already been rented, we are about to sale the car, and most of our rooms in our house are empty including mine. It is a little overwhelming at times because we have done so much and there is still so much to do. We all work together and help one another as much as we can though so I know we can get through it. This also means when something goes we get something new in China. We just got and email from the principal telling us that they switched our apartments. Good thing is that it seems even nicer than before and we get our own rooms. It's also closer to the school. I am very stoked about school. It is a drastic change. My mom is teaching 6th grade all subjects which will be very different because she has always taught high school. My dad is going to be my Math and Science teacher. (Lord help me)
The most different thing in my opinion is that there are hardly any people at this school. In my grade there is about 12 or 13 people. That is something that is totally new for me because at my school now there is 180 students.
See taking an adventure can be a lot of hard work ,but it is worth it in the end!
The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. ~St. Augustine

My family and me!Don't we look very Adventurous!lol

This is a picture of the beautiful city!

I am having a great day! This morning I had church and then we went to the funeral home (that was sad though) to see a woman that had died in a car accident and was a teacher at Portland East. Raven and I went to the Mexican restaurant and we saw one of our friends. My family is coming over in 30 minutes; I am very excited!

The other day these people came over and they are going to rent our house for us when we move to China. They are very nice people that will take good care of our house. China is only four and a half months away. That seems long, but it will go by fast. My parents have looked at the textbooks there and we just got our passports in the mail. When the passports came it just felt like one step closer to my family's dream. I am ecstatic about this adventure and know in my heart that this is the best decision for us!

I can't go anywhere without someone saying "You're moving to China?"
Everyone at school knows I am moving ,but it's like they still don't know for sure,so they have to ask. I tell them, Yes and then more questions start to flow out of their mouth. I don't know what to say because I'm not there NOW. I don't know how long I will be gone, what exact day we are going (sometime in August),or even if I'm going to like it there. QUESTIONS!!! I lay in bed at night thinking WOW I must be the luckiest girl ever to get to have this opportunity and get to travel the world. This sounds terrible, but I feel like I have to see it to believe it. I KNOW I'm going I just don't know what to expect. I have been searching though on the Internet and it sounds like a very neat place to live. The living is very different form ours though. We will be living in an apartment, eating WAY different foods, it's crowded everywhere, and I'm not going to be able to see all of my family every weekend like usual. It's okay because I know that this is a great adventure for my family and I! Chengdu China- 5 months! (YAY)!!!