One Month from Today

As it is one month from today that I'll be leaving for an adventure of a lifetime, I thought this would be a good time to start blogging about the experience. So for the next month, you can read about my preparation for my trip to China, and then during the five weeks that I'm there, you can keep up with what I'm doing.

First, it may be helpful to have a little background on the program. I am one of 25 teachers from across the US who was selected to take part in the summer institute From Chang’an to Xi’an:Ancient Capital to Modern Metropolis offered by the China Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I have participated in NEH summer workshops in the past, such as one on the Industrial Revolution at the Henry Ford Museum/Greenfield Village, the US Constitution at Mount Vernon and Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Those have all been one-week programs. I have learned so much from them that I've been able to bring back to the classroom. This is the first five week seminar I'm doing and it happens to be in China. I really consider it an honour to be selected.

So far, what have I been doing to prepare? Since I have received notification at the beginning of April that I was selected, I have received three good sized books that I need to read before going. (Luckily, the participants are not expected to lug the books to China.) I am still making my way through the first one, Chinese Civilization: A Sourcebook. It's a collection of primary source documents dating back to 1200 BCE all the way to modern times. That's over 3200 years of history! Some of it is incredibly fascinating, some of it is rather boring. I am just over half way through. Next week I will be heading to the Wirt Public Library to find a quiet place without distraction to get that book out of the way. The next one I have to tackle is 700+ page book, The Search for Modern China, which is more of a straight-forward narrative history book. I should have no problem reading that. In retrospect, I should have read that one first in order to make more sense out of the primary source documents I'm now reading. Oh well, I'll survive. The last one, Buddhist Sculpture from China: Selections from the Xi'an Beilin Museum, is a lot of pictures, so I should be able to get through it very quickly in the last weeks before the trip.

In addition to all of the reading, I've had to send my passport in to the China Institute so that they could get and Chinese entrance visa for me. All Americans (and I'm sure other nationalities, as well) must have a visa to enter China. Of course the Chinese government charges a hefty $130 for the privilege to enter its country. I was very nervous about sending my passport through the mail. I think that comes from travelling around Europe while in college. We were taught to NEVER let our passports out of our sight. So the thought of being separated from my passport now still gives me an anxiety attack.

Also, while not required to enter China, I received a battery of recommended shots for the trip: hep A & B, polio, tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough and typhoid. I am now ready for the next outbreak of the plague. Bring it on! I now have a neat yellow booklet with my vaccinations listed that I get to staple into my passport when I'm reunited with it in Newark.

Newark? Yeah, that's where I'll be headed on July 5th for a one-day orientation session. Makes sense since the China Institute is located in Manhattan and Newark is one of the major international airports nearby. We're actually being put up at the Marriott Spring Hills Suites right by the airport. We then fly out on the 7th.

Well, we're supposed to be getting another information packet this week. I'll post again when I receive that. Until then...