If anyone was interested, here are a few links that can give you more information about my volunteer program, my study abroad program, and the Olympic Games.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Party Time!
What: My Going Away Celebration
When: Saturday, August 2, 2008 4:00 PM
Where: My House (you know the address)
Call my parents to find out what to bring. Food, fun and family. What more can you ask for before you head off to another country for 5 months. Hopefully there will be good weather so that we can have a fire at night. NO CHINESE FOOD! haha, but really...
Thursday, July 24, 2008
A Few Shots Closer to the Games
Monday was our chance to sign up for our Olympic tickets. They made everyone wait until 9:00 AM (PST) before they were available. Of course, just like signing up for classes at the beginning of a semester, not everyone was guaranteed tickets to their first choice. But being the kinda-lucky person I am, I got everything I wanted. My friends, however, weren’t as lucky…Here’s what I got tickets to:
August 13th
o Beach Volleyball—Men’s and Women’s Preliminaries 1:00 PM
o I’m counting on a warm summer day of sunshine and watching pros. Just like family picnics, right?
August 18th
o Artistic Gymnastics—Men’s and Women’s Finals 6:00 PM
o Events I get to see: Men’s Rings Final & Awards Ceremony, Women’s Uneven Bars Final & Awards Ceremony, Men’s Vault Final & Awards Ceremony.
August 22nd
o Basketball—Men’s Semifinals 8:00 PM
o Hopefully the US team makes it this far. That would be awesome!
August 23rd
o Track & Field—Men’s and Women’s Finals 7:00 PM
o Events I get to see: Men’s Javelin Throw Final, Women’s High Jump Final, Men’s 800m Final, Women’s 1500m Final, Men’s 5000m Final, Men’s/Women’s 4 x 400m Relay final.
I am pretty sure that Devon and Jimmy both got tickets to the track & field event and the gymnastics event. Devon and I are going to beach volleyball together. Jimmy and I are going to basketball together. But Devon and Jimmy wanted to see diving, but that was sold out before either of them could get tickets. So, after re-planning, I think Jimmy is going to see water polo and Devon is going to synchronized swimming. Not to mention, we get to attend the closing ceremony (I think?). If we aren’t attending the closing ceremony, I’m sure we are going to have a huge celebration party right across the street, haha!
Another update that everyone probably wants to know: I’m all vaccinated for China. I had to get a few shots from the Jefferson Country Department of Health and Travel Services. Luckily, I have already received Meningitis, Hepatitis B, and DPT (whatever that is). But I still had to get more. Today I went in to receive another tetanus shot and Hepatitis A. Not too bad, but I have to go back in 6 months to finish my Hepatitis A vaccine. It makes me feel a little better knowing I’m vaccinated, and now it will take even more to kill me off out there (just kidding). The woman at the clinic still advised me to “avoid getting bit by any mosquitoes,” which is nearly impossible, especially because I seem to get bit the most on camping trips and outdoor adventures. We’ll see how I do with that one.
Other than that, I’ve just ordered my books for the semester. I have to ship them to my house and then to my dorm out in China (most places don’t ship internationally). Stay tuned for the next update.
August 13th
o Beach Volleyball—Men’s and Women’s Preliminaries 1:00 PM
o I’m counting on a warm summer day of sunshine and watching pros. Just like family picnics, right?
August 18th
o Artistic Gymnastics—Men’s and Women’s Finals 6:00 PM
o Events I get to see: Men’s Rings Final & Awards Ceremony, Women’s Uneven Bars Final & Awards Ceremony, Men’s Vault Final & Awards Ceremony.
August 22nd
o Basketball—Men’s Semifinals 8:00 PM
o Hopefully the US team makes it this far. That would be awesome!
August 23rd
o Track & Field—Men’s and Women’s Finals 7:00 PM
o Events I get to see: Men’s Javelin Throw Final, Women’s High Jump Final, Men’s 800m Final, Women’s 1500m Final, Men’s 5000m Final, Men’s/Women’s 4 x 400m Relay final.
I am pretty sure that Devon and Jimmy both got tickets to the track & field event and the gymnastics event. Devon and I are going to beach volleyball together. Jimmy and I are going to basketball together. But Devon and Jimmy wanted to see diving, but that was sold out before either of them could get tickets. So, after re-planning, I think Jimmy is going to see water polo and Devon is going to synchronized swimming. Not to mention, we get to attend the closing ceremony (I think?). If we aren’t attending the closing ceremony, I’m sure we are going to have a huge celebration party right across the street, haha!
Another update that everyone probably wants to know: I’m all vaccinated for China. I had to get a few shots from the Jefferson Country Department of Health and Travel Services. Luckily, I have already received Meningitis, Hepatitis B, and DPT (whatever that is). But I still had to get more. Today I went in to receive another tetanus shot and Hepatitis A. Not too bad, but I have to go back in 6 months to finish my Hepatitis A vaccine. It makes me feel a little better knowing I’m vaccinated, and now it will take even more to kill me off out there (just kidding). The woman at the clinic still advised me to “avoid getting bit by any mosquitoes,” which is nearly impossible, especially because I seem to get bit the most on camping trips and outdoor adventures. We’ll see how I do with that one.
Other than that, I’ve just ordered my books for the semester. I have to ship them to my house and then to my dorm out in China (most places don’t ship internationally). Stay tuned for the next update.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Olympic Games
I've been getting e-mail updates this entire week about things I need to do to prepare myself for China. My volunteer program, CC International, has given us the list of Olympic events that we can choose from. They really hooked everyone up because everyone will get to see 4 Olympic events. They have tickets for nearly every event including Taekwondo, Canoe/Rowing, Track & Field, Gymnastics, Baseball, Basketball, etc. I'm thinking my events are going to go along the lines of Beach Volleyball, Mens/Womens Track & Field, Tennis and Water Polo. But, of course, that is all subject to change once I talk to Devon and Jimmy.
Devon, for those of you who don't know her, is my friend at Fordham who introduced me to CC International. She lived above me in Alumni Court North and we've been good friends ever since. She'll probably try and keep me from eating seahorses on a stick, fried scorpions, bugs, and small animals. I'll probably try one of those anyway though!
Also, I got an e-mail from my school saying that they rearranged the class schedule. I'm usually pessimistic about changes because sometimes my luck doesn't work out and I get the short end of the stick, but in this case, it worked out just fine. Actually, my new schedule is much better! Here it is:
Monday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM
Tuesday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM, Arts of China 1:30-4:15PM, Business Finance 4:30-7:15PM
Wednesday: Intro to Buddhism 7:30-10:15PM
Thursday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM, Fundamentals of Marketing 4:30-7:15PM
Friday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM
Yes, you read that correctly, Wednesday I have a class until 10PM. It's actually not that bad and I guess no matter what country I'm in I'll always have a night class on Wednesdays. At Fordham, I haven't gone a semester without taking Chinese class for 3 hours on Wednesday nights. This past year, I didn't return to my dorm until nearly 11PM. I'm used to it by now, so in China it won't be much different.
That is all for now. I'll let you know on Monday which Olympic games I'm going to see.
Devon, for those of you who don't know her, is my friend at Fordham who introduced me to CC International. She lived above me in Alumni Court North and we've been good friends ever since. She'll probably try and keep me from eating seahorses on a stick, fried scorpions, bugs, and small animals. I'll probably try one of those anyway though!
Also, I got an e-mail from my school saying that they rearranged the class schedule. I'm usually pessimistic about changes because sometimes my luck doesn't work out and I get the short end of the stick, but in this case, it worked out just fine. Actually, my new schedule is much better! Here it is:
Monday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM
Tuesday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM, Arts of China 1:30-4:15PM, Business Finance 4:30-7:15PM
Wednesday: Intro to Buddhism 7:30-10:15PM
Thursday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM, Fundamentals of Marketing 4:30-7:15PM
Friday: Chinese 9:50-12:20PM
Yes, you read that correctly, Wednesday I have a class until 10PM. It's actually not that bad and I guess no matter what country I'm in I'll always have a night class on Wednesdays. At Fordham, I haven't gone a semester without taking Chinese class for 3 hours on Wednesday nights. This past year, I didn't return to my dorm until nearly 11PM. I'm used to it by now, so in China it won't be much different.
That is all for now. I'll let you know on Monday which Olympic games I'm going to see.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Things are Coming Together
I was going to update last week, but I was heading to California for a week for a leadership conference. I just got back to Denver, so I'm going to tell everyone what's up. I received my visa last Monday, everything was good. I have to enter before Jan. 1, 2009 and I can only stay 180 days from my date of entry. That works out perfectly because I'm leaving August 5th, and I think I'm only in China for 140 something days.
I received notification of my school dorm. I'm rooming with Jim Lechleitner and we got into the apartment style buildings on campus. This means we have our room, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. If the food is really horrible, we can always cook our own noodles and rice. Also, I received my class schedule. Here it is:
Monday: Chinese 9:30-12:20
Tuesday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Arts of China 1:30-4:20, Business Finance 4:30-7:20
Wednesday: No Classes!
Thursday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Principals of Marketing 4:30-7:20
Friday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Intro to Buddhism 1:30-4:20
The schedule isn't too terrible. I don't like the fact that I have a class on Friday afternoon, and Tuesdays will definitely kill me. If you know me, I eat all the time so I'm going to have to figure out how I'm going to prevent myself from starving on Tuesdays. Other than that Monday will be pretty easy and I can already predict myself missing a lot of Monday morning Chinese classes because I'm going to be traveling around.
I haven't started packing yet and my chinese language books are still laying on the ground where I left them at the beginning of the summer. I finally picked up some of my informational books, and I'm currently reading China's New Rulers by Andrew J. Nathan & Bruce Gilley. I'm surprised how much I like reading about the politics of China. Interesting stuff to me, but I have no time and other priorities that keep me from really getting through the book. I'm about 90 pages deep out of 250. Maybe I'll get to 150 by the time I leave.
Other than that I've been good. I'll be updating more often now, so put me on your RSS feed if you have it.
I received notification of my school dorm. I'm rooming with Jim Lechleitner and we got into the apartment style buildings on campus. This means we have our room, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom. If the food is really horrible, we can always cook our own noodles and rice. Also, I received my class schedule. Here it is:
Monday: Chinese 9:30-12:20
Tuesday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Arts of China 1:30-4:20, Business Finance 4:30-7:20
Wednesday: No Classes!
Thursday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Principals of Marketing 4:30-7:20
Friday: Chinese 9:30-12:20, Intro to Buddhism 1:30-4:20
The schedule isn't too terrible. I don't like the fact that I have a class on Friday afternoon, and Tuesdays will definitely kill me. If you know me, I eat all the time so I'm going to have to figure out how I'm going to prevent myself from starving on Tuesdays. Other than that Monday will be pretty easy and I can already predict myself missing a lot of Monday morning Chinese classes because I'm going to be traveling around.
I haven't started packing yet and my chinese language books are still laying on the ground where I left them at the beginning of the summer. I finally picked up some of my informational books, and I'm currently reading China's New Rulers by Andrew J. Nathan & Bruce Gilley. I'm surprised how much I like reading about the politics of China. Interesting stuff to me, but I have no time and other priorities that keep me from really getting through the book. I'm about 90 pages deep out of 250. Maybe I'll get to 150 by the time I leave.
Other than that I've been good. I'll be updating more often now, so put me on your RSS feed if you have it.
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