1 Day and Change Before Beijing

Last night my home team, the Boston Celtics, had a chance to pick the best Chinese player since Yao Ming. Yi Jianlian was heralded as the next great hope for Chinese basketball, but the C's passed. Instead we traded a few players for all-star Ray Allen and my boy from LSU, "Big Baby" Glen Davis! I believe the sun will rise again for the Celtics franchise...someday (as Communism did for China under Mao). Hopefully we're moving in the right direction.

Well, the bags are packed and its go time. It took most of the day today to fit everything in my luggage. Today marked the first time I've had to weigh my bags for a flight. Pretty strange if you ask me. Speaking of strange, one strange sighting was seeing a super-size package of 24 rolls of toilette paper in my luggage. Another first for trip packing. I guess you never know when a roll of toilette paper will come in handy (ie. when you're out in the countryside and there's a big hole in the ground). Sometimes you've just got to do your business when the conditions aren't so favorable.

So this is my last blog post before Bejing. I'll be in the air for about 25 hours (if you're counting the 12 hour time change, the flight is only 13 hours long...only 13 hours long). I see it as 25 hours. So the language pledge begins...NO ENGLISH or you go home. It's as simple as that. 5 hours of Chinese/day, 3 hours of Chinese/week of chatter with the locals, >50 new Chinese characters/day. All that spells I-N-T-E-N-S-E. BUT I'M PSYCHED! It's going to be great. China for 6 months. Let's Go. 走把！

3 Days Before Beijing

Saturday is edging closer and I'm still not packed yet. It is a slow process, trying to think of what to pack for six months. Well, most of my clothes are laid out on the floor next to my luggage so hopefully I will have everything ready to go tonight.

Anyway, this morning started out with about six simultaneous Skype calls and Windows Messenger messages from people in China. iTalki is great and all for practicing Chinese with native speakers, but this event was probably the craziest experience of my life thus far. It is incredible how many people want to practice their English with me. After talking with Chinese college students for a few days, it seems to me they only studying in their free time. One important thing I have learned from iTalki is that the Chinese wake up earlier and go to bed earlier than most Americans. At around 10:30am (10:30pm Chinese time) almost everyone said they had to go to sleep. The other day I was online at 7:00pm (7am their time) and I already had a message on Skype waiting for me. Most of the kids I was talking with were in college, so they were around my age.

One last thing to mention. Everyone seems to be talking about the great underground rock scene in China, especially in Beijing. The more that I've heard, the more psyched I'm getting. Yesterday my friend Charlie told me about the most famous Chinese rock musician, Cui Jian, who happens to have grown up in Beijing. He is the legendary Chinese artist that broke away from traditional styles and incorporated a Western influences into his music. Old Cui is known as "The Father of Chinese Rock." I can tell you now that I'm already a big fan. In my view he is a cross between Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen. What do you think he sounds like? Decide for yourself:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l8UPST1ZKSw&mode=related&search=

Countdown Clock

4 Days Before Beijing

Wow. Time sure does fly. The months of anticipation are finally coming to a head and I can almost picture a hazy outline of the Beijing airport. Last week my friend Charlie showed me a website called italki.com, which allows you to connect with people around the world and create language partners. Since then I have already made connections with students and teachers around the Beijing. It not only has helped me practice for the Intensive Chinese Immersion Program this summer, but has raised my anticipation level even higher. Just the other day I was talking with a Chinese teacher in Beijing and she was telling me about all of the things I should do there. She even gave me her contact information in case I need help with something while I am in Beijing!

Alright, so I am going to try to update this blog every day if I am near a computer. In the links section, I'll be adding sites that I find interesting. For now, I put up a link to my pictures in China that will hopefully be up-to-date. Make sure you check out the bar of YouTube videos above this post. Occasionally I will change it up when I feel the time is right. At the moment you're getting a little segment I am calling "I'm Livin' On Chinese Rock." Enjoy and leave me some comments! If there's anything you want to know about or have any other questions for me, let me know.