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China Plans
Jul. 3rd, 2009 12:07 amI have a Chinese-English dictionary. It's like, bigger than I am. It's at my mom's house. So, in lieu of that - today we sat in the bookstore studying Chinese characters and making flash cards. I mentioned I'd given up on trying to learn/improve my Chinese speaking skills because it's simply impossible to get enough of a handle on the intonations to actually use it - no. Purchased audio CDs of basic Chinese phrases.
Stared at the map of China on my wall.
We have a tentative route planned.
Talked to B's brother on the phone tonight - it's tomorrow morning over there, by the way. If we come in September (which is most likely what we will do) he can't meet us in Beijing (which is where we will probably fly in to), so it's either get right on another plane to Wuhan, or see Beijing ourselves and then travel to Wuhan, preferably by train. How adventurous do we want to be?
Beijing is where the Great Wall and the Forbidden City are. Hubei is where we will be staying for a while. Wuhan is where B's brother wants to meet us.
B seems overly confident in my language skills. This is unfounded.
B's brother J suggests we go to Hanoi. I am not opposed to adding a second country to the trip as long as it doesn't complicate passport/visa issues too badly. J is skeptical of the two of us seeing Beijing alone and says he will try to hook us up with someone who knows someone who knows him, or something like that. The other choice is that we all three go back to Beijing and spend a week or so there before we fly home. But it would make more sense to see Beijing, meet in Wuhan, stay in Tongshin, and then make the trip to Hanoi together.
There is so much to see - it's such a huge country. I don't do constant fast-paced travel - but I feel like we've got all the time in the world, and we do have quite a bit, but still. It's impossible to go everywhere and see everything. Isn't it? I think it also makes sense to leave a lot of planning up the the air until we're already there - see how it is to travel around just the two of us and not speaking much Chinese, see how easy/possible it even is to get around - and continue planning accordingly.
This all seems very unreal to me right now - logically, I know we're really doing this. But it seems like we sit around talking pipe dreams or something - this can't really be real - right?
Stared at the map of China on my wall.
We have a tentative route planned.
Talked to B's brother on the phone tonight - it's tomorrow morning over there, by the way. If we come in September (which is most likely what we will do) he can't meet us in Beijing (which is where we will probably fly in to), so it's either get right on another plane to Wuhan, or see Beijing ourselves and then travel to Wuhan, preferably by train. How adventurous do we want to be?
Beijing is where the Great Wall and the Forbidden City are. Hubei is where we will be staying for a while. Wuhan is where B's brother wants to meet us.
B seems overly confident in my language skills. This is unfounded.
B's brother J suggests we go to Hanoi. I am not opposed to adding a second country to the trip as long as it doesn't complicate passport/visa issues too badly. J is skeptical of the two of us seeing Beijing alone and says he will try to hook us up with someone who knows someone who knows him, or something like that. The other choice is that we all three go back to Beijing and spend a week or so there before we fly home. But it would make more sense to see Beijing, meet in Wuhan, stay in Tongshin, and then make the trip to Hanoi together.
There is so much to see - it's such a huge country. I don't do constant fast-paced travel - but I feel like we've got all the time in the world, and we do have quite a bit, but still. It's impossible to go everywhere and see everything. Isn't it? I think it also makes sense to leave a lot of planning up the the air until we're already there - see how it is to travel around just the two of us and not speaking much Chinese, see how easy/possible it even is to get around - and continue planning accordingly.
This all seems very unreal to me right now - logically, I know we're really doing this. But it seems like we sit around talking pipe dreams or something - this can't really be real - right?
