T Minus 20 Hours

This is my luggage pile that I will be taking with me.  The trunk and purple duffle are checked (50 and 40 lbs) and the brown/grey roller and the backpack are my carry-ons.  I'm pretty impressed over all.  The only thing that I didn't get to pack that I really wanted to was a black briefcase.  Maybe Dad can bring it when he comes to visit me in September.  (Noted:  everyone is welcome to visit me.  Please come!)

This morning was the first time I really felt excited about going.  So much of moving is hassel and stress and anxiety that I had no room to feel excited.  People would find out I'm moving to China and say "You must be so ex-CI-ted!!" and I would smile and nod even though I didn't.  Theoretically I was excited, but the emotion wasn't there until this morning.

HOLY CRAP I'M MOVING TO CHINA, TOMORROW!

But I'm not looking forward to the 24+ hours of traveling.  But I am excited at getting to my appartment and putting away all my stuff and having my new friends come over for tea.  And meeting my students and making them all think I'm crazy because I talk too much and smile too much and they have never had an English teacher like me.  On the whole, Chinese English teachers are pretty solem.

I'm excited about buying a hot plate and figuring out what I can cook (and what I can't).  And baking baby pizzas with no cheese and no tomato sauce.  So like... bread and olive oil and cherry tomatoes.  Something like that.

I know that I am going to break down and cry in the airport tomorrow when I say good bye to my family.  I nearly cry just thinking about it.  But this is what I'm called to do, so that's the way it needs to be.  As Donald Miller would say, a great story is not without tears.  Well, paraphrased.

Today:  ate baked brie for lunch and am eating mozzerella and tomato salad for dinner.  Have eaten pizza for the last three nights in a row.  More cheese tomorrow.  Then...  rice.  Will USPS ship cheese through the mail to China?

125 Pounds

I have done a lot of traveling and moving before, so packing all my stuff into boxes and suitcases is not an unfamiliar prospect.  I've spent three summers in China, packing one large red suitcase for a month of teaching at a time.  Moving to college was a 20 minute drive, so I was able to put all of my boxes into my little VW bug and take two trips back and forth in a day to move home during summers.  My first post-college house was only 6 blocks away from my in-college house, so we shoved all of my furniture one at a time into the back of my friend's Subaru and drove at 10 mph with the back open and me holding desperately onto whatever-it-was so it didn't fall out.

[Side note:  I googled "Seattle to Zhengzhou" to find out how many miles I would be traveling, and it calculated it based on kayaking to Hawaii and then to Japan, then jet skiing from Japan to mainland China.  I appreciate Google's sense of humor.]

Anyway, moving 8,500 miles with just 125 pounds of luggage is new for me.  Especially for a whole year.  My comfort books alone weigh 50 pounds.  Thank goodness for ebooks!

I have already packed a large trunk that my dad took to Penn State (back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth) that has a large red sticker on the top that says "President Nixon- Now More Than Ever."  Seeing as Nixon was the first president to visit China, I thought it was appropriate.

 I'm glad to be halfway packed already, it has helped easy my pre-move anxiety.  Now I just need to figure out the last minute items and any summer clothes I want to take that I am wearing until the last moment.

More to come!