I decided to make a blog to record my study abroad in China this summer! This will be my second flying trip ever and second time out of the country. Tomorrow I'll be getting up around 5am and leaving the house at 6am. My dad is driving me 2 hours up to Dulles but first we're going to stop at the IHOP in Chantilly to meet Michael for breakfast because he wants to see me before I leave. :) We'll get to the airport around 9:30, about 3 hours before my plane leaves to make sure I have plenty of time. Cristal and I are on the same flight so we can get lost together in the airports. The flight leaves from Dulles at 12:25 and then lands in New York (JFK) at 1:45. We wait about another 3 hours there and then depart for Beijing at 4:50pm. After a 13 and a half hour flight, we'll arrive at Terminal 3 (the biggest in the world apparently!) in Beijing airport at 6:20pm their time (so, 6:20am Eastern time). Our program director told us to wear JMU apparel because there will be someone there with a JMU flag to pick us up! Our long journey isn't over yet; we still have 1 more flight from Beijing to Chengdu, where we'll be spending the first 5 weeks. We depart at 10:00pm and arrive around 12:50am. Whew!
In Chengdu, we're staying in the international student dorms at Sichuan University. After 5 weeks, we'll spend 1 week in Thailand and then we'll go to Beijing for the last 5 weeks. I'm taking 6 classes:
IBUS 298-I How to do Business in China
IBUS 298-II Business Environment in China and Southeast Asia
POSC 371 Modern Chinese Politics
HIST 341 Modern Chinese History
CHIN 300 & 320 Advanced Chinese
Hopefully I'll remember to keep up with this! Must finish packing now~
