The day before

Published on June 11, 2009 in Stanford. 20 Comments

So, three finals and one lab report later, I’ve finally made it to the end of spring quarter. Now starts the beginning of an epic journey into China. I’m very excited but at the same time I’m very nervous as well. What if I don’t like it? What if the living conditions, pollution, and language barrier prove too much for me to handle?

For the most part, however, I think this will be a great opportunity for me to break out of the Stanford bubble and see what life is like in an up-and-coming region of China. I think it’s good that I’m embarking on the journey alone; this way I’ll have no choice but to assimilate.

I’m told that I’ll be staying with an employee at Astronergy and her family for the 14 weeks that I’m there. It’s certainly going to be an interesting experience, seeing that neither her nor her family speaks very good English, and my knowledge of Mandarin is extremely limited. If all else fails, I’m sure we’ll bond over the universal language — food. Apparently everything in China is deep-fried and loaded with MSG… yummy!

In other news, packing was a real pain, took me almost two full days to get it all done. Here’s some before and after pics:

my room mid-migration

my room mid-migration

after the storm

after the storm

Along with my bags, I should probably also bring along this snazzy-looking document:

Chinese visa

Chinese visa

The visa is double-entry because I’m taking some time off mid-summer for a little eurotrip and to visit Armenia, but more details on that will come later. It’s late and I need to go to bed. Not that I won’t have ample time to snooze on that 13-hour flight from SF to Shanghai tomorrow…

- Pu Anren (my Chinese name, it means “peaceful benevolence”)

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