This summer has gone by SO fast. It feels like we just got out of classes yesterday, and here we are in late August already.

I think working full time makes summer go by quicker. I’m always waiting for the next thing – the next meeting, the next step in a project, even just for the end of the day or for Friday – and whole weeks have just flown by. I have only one day left at work, so I’m busy trying to finish up loose ends and prepare to hand my work off to other interns.

We leave for China a week from tomorrow, and I’m starting to get a little nervous. It’s funny how it works. I have basically known I was going on this trip since February or so. I’ve taken a class, gone to meetings, prepared a bunch of paperwork, talked to friends who went before… but the fact that I’m actually leaving is just starting to sink in. It still didn’t seem real at all until a couple weeks ago when I went to Target and dropped $200 on various supplies to take with me. I have always lived at home, so I needed to buy all the little things I need for life all at once. Looking at a cart full of everything from Tylenol to duct tape kind of put things in perspective. I’m going to be gone for a long time!

It’s still very exciting, despite my anxiety. We unfortunately won’t be there in time to see any of the Olympics, but it’s still cool to watch the games and know that I’m going to be in the same place in a matter of days.

Aside from China/Japan preparation my summer has been pretty quiet. I can pretty much only see friends on weekends, since I’m spending long days at work. Several of us will be gone for study abroad this fall and we’ve started saying our goodbyes already. At least we can all talk via Skype, time differences or no. There has been talk about video conferencing COW meetings from time to time, but we’ll have to see how that pans out.

Anyway, now that I’ll be starting my adventure soon you can expect that I’ll be making a lot more posts (with photos!). I’ll try to post soon after we get into Beijing so I can give you some first impressions. Wish me luck!

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 10:43 am and is filed under China, Study Abroad. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.