Late Night Musings

It's 2:17 in the morning.
One more day left in March.
15 more days until I leave on my jetplane to Beijing.

Well, that is if all goes according to plan. Most people get a visa, then a plane ticket. I, on the other hand, like to leave things till the last minute (being a procrastinator makes my life more exciting). So, today after returning from a whirlwind trip along the East Coast, I paid a visit to the local photoshop cum visa agency run by a Chinese guy. For a mere $20, he assured me that by Wednesday he can get me the official go-ahead for the next chapter of my life. I now wait with bated breath for the tourist visa that will let me to enter and leave the motherland for up to six months.

While entering China as a "tourist," my intension is to stay in the country for at least a year, most likely two. This time I am not going to China to only travel. Instead, I am packing up my two suitcases to find work in Beijing related to my masters degree in Environment and Development.

Moving to China is probably the scariest thing I have done in my 27 years. Sure, I have picked up and transplated my life abroad twice (heck, I even traveled four months solo through SE Asia). However both times I knew generally what was to be in store. I knew I would share a home with other students and live the student life. I knew that after the papers had been written and the exams had been taken, I had to come back home.

At this point, the only thing I know about my China adventure is that I will be crashing with my cousin Carolyn and her husband Josh until I figure stuff out. Oh, and I know that I will make my one friend in Beijing, Denny B, hang out with me constantly. Haha, well at first anyway. Otherwise, a stream of questions run through my head such as:

Where will I live? Will I find a job that I love and still make ends meet?
Will they think I am a dork riding a bike with a helmut?
Will I finally learn to read and write Chinese?

Surprisingly, I am feeling pretty optimistic about my decision to arrive in a foreign country with no job in hand. For the past month, I have been busy connecting with people working on China environmental issues. Several emails, one lengthy phone conversastion, and four stateside meetings later- I think that I have made enough progress to have hope that employment is not in the too distant future. Once I arrive in Beijing I am also scheduled to meet with more enviro folks and will be helping out with Earth Day activities.

As for the rest of the stuff? I live for uncertainty. Right now, not knowing the answers to my life questions excites me.

And I don't know, just something deep down in me believes that I am doing the right thing, that moving to China is meant to be.

Fingers crossed.