Hey guys,
First, I would like to thank everyone for helping me and making this trip possible. Without the support and donations I would never get to achieve my goal. I'm almost there... about $1,000 more to go. My trip is coming up really fast, I am really excited to be leaving in three weeks. First off I am headed down to Los Angeles for Pre-Departure Orientation and on July 10th I will be flying to Pu Dong Airport in Shanghai. In Shanghai I will have In-Country Orientations and from there will leave for Changzhou. Changzhou will be the city that I will be staying in. Changzhou is a city really close to Shanghai in the bordering province of Jiangsu. The city of Changzhou, a university town, that has academically elite colleges and high schools. Changzhou was also awarded the most environmentally friendly city in China. Ill be staying with my host family and going to Changzhou No. 1 High School to study Mandarin for four weeks. The school day includes Mandarin study in the morning and Cultural Activities during the afternoon like martial arts, cooking, and calligraphy. Also we will be taking frequent field trips around the city.
Aside from that, I will start my first newsletter during the week before my trip for sure. After that I will try to make newsletters as much as possible (once a week at the least) depending on computer availabilty. Ill try to update my blog as much as possible and notify you with email about blog updates.
