Prelude

So, I was hired by Treville Foreign Language School on August second. It's August twenty-second and I'm getting on a plane to Beijing in about twenty hours. Neat. Right? 

If you crunched the numbers you'll see that gave me a WHOPPING three weeks to plan my departure. It has been stressful to say the least. But I think I'm almost ready to go. You know, once I get my Visa and pack my suitcases. 

You are most certainly going to die.

ANY WHO, I made the most of my last week living in Racine, WI. Seeing the last few friends I had in the area: Mega-shout outs to Ashley, Chris, and Ericka and visiting my favorite haunts one last time. Does China have Irish dive bars? Time will tell. 

After an eventful move I settled back home to "set my affairs in order." Even though my affairs mostly seemed to include watching "The Big Bang Theory" on DVD day in and day out while eating as many of the foods I'm expecting to go without in the middle Kingdom. This list is primarily composed of meat, bread, cheese, anything requiring an oven and yup, you guessed it, Chinese food. I can only imagine what the local cuisine will be like in Beijing. Only. Imagine.

This is what comes up when you Google "Beijing Food"

Am I right?

PREPARING, for this trip has been an experience. Being 6'2" and about 230lbs will make finding clothes in China a challenge so I knew I had to bring a decent quantity of clothes that will last. For those of you who know me personally: style is an important part of who I am. For everything I'm walking away from I still want a good shirt and a bow tie to feel like myself. The clothes were the easy part. I needed to obtain a durable watch, better shoes for walking and sturdy boots for winter, thermal layers, an eReader (I opted for a tablet: the Google Nexus 7), a water purification system, a few of my favorite spices and a LOT of drugs. I've been shooting for that whole "one month supply" thing. Obviously there's a lot of people in China who all use things somehow. I just need time to figure out where to buy most of it. A few things: deodorant, q-tips, and hand sanitizer in particular, are very hard to come by so I'm well stocked on that front. 

Another thing I'm hoping I won't be able to find in China

YUP, This is basically the flash version of my decision to do this and the preparations that it has entailed. I'm Eric Sipe. I'm twenty-one. I have my BA in psychology and a TEFL certification. I'm a nerd. I'm rather tall (especially by Chinese standards), I have next to no idea what I'm doing and I'll be on the plane soon. Follow along.