Beginning of a week

Hello to all. I can't believe that today is the Monday of my second week here. It's starting to set in that I will not be home for another 5 weeks. Scary. But I'm doing alright.

I found out today that we are leaving on Thursday night for a weekend trip. We are heading south to Wuyi Mountain. Mom, it said we were visiting an island on the itinerary, but Prof. Shang and Ni changed their minds. I think the island was very very expensive. So anyway, google Wuyi Mountain. It looks amazing. And we are taking a river raft ride while we are there. No, not white water rafting... unfortunately. But the raft ride is on one of the Muyi Mountain sites and it looks nice. So we leave on Thursday night and take a 12 hour night train ride down there. I'm very very nervous about the train ride. Apparently rather than being in soft sleepers, we are going to be in hard sleepers. They were described to me as a row of bunk beds 3 beds high with a bunch of smelly strangers in the car with us. I feel as though I am going to be a Jew going into a concentration camp. Please pray for me! I made it alright on the plane ride... but I just do not know about smelly strangers all night long.

Today was another day full of homework and then tonight after dinner Drew and I went out on the subway to find the new location for the Copy Market. We didn't find it, but we still managed to have a good time around the city. We found ourselves a nice gelato place. I didn't realize how much I missed chocolate! It melted quickly in the heat tonight though. It was surpisingly cool today (when I say cool I mean about 85 degrees F with a nice breeze) but between this afternoon and tonight the humidity sky-rocketed. I asked Professor Ni today how it would be heading south this weekend. He is hoping that it will be cool because we will be in the mountains. I'm hoping so! The idea of traveling south right now does not sound that appealing. But I am more than ready to get out into some fresh air! While Shanghai is fun and beautiful.... the air is not so fun and beautiful!

Mom (or probably Dad), thanks again for feeding fishy and getting him a net! He seems to have many names. My original name for him is Goober, usually I just call him Fishy. But my roommates this past year have found other names for him. I can only remember two (Sheila, Tori and Schulte, help me out if I am missing any). I believe the adopted names are "Beast" and "Crazy Eyes". Although, I do like to call him Shamoo sometimes because his back fin is crooked from the bowl. Check it out! But we don't want to be getting him a bigger bowl because he will just get bigger, and after 5 years he is already HUGE! What a great Valentines gift from Joe huh? I swear I have gone semesters at a time without cleaning his bowl and he just keeps on living. What a trooper.

Oh and Mom, please stop talking about food in your emails. You really are killing me over here. I miss so many things that I think I have conversations every day about what kinds of foods I miss. Last night I had a craving for Pollo Rosa Maria from Carrabba's. But cheeseburgers on the grill sound fantastic all the time, along with any kind of salad or veggetable. I also miss my breakfast drink. Drew told me about a foreign food market tonight, I think I'll make a trip and see what I can find that reminds me of home. I would try to find my breakfast drink but I don't know if I trust the milk here.

Alex, thank you so much for the emails you have been sending me! They make me miss you tons. You can send them to either email address, I have my GVSU account set up so that all of my emails get forwarded to my yahoo account, so it really doesn't matter. Tell your mom that as fun as it would be to have drunken shrimp at my reception, I just don't think the Pinnacle offers it... I'll have to have my mom check for me though ;o) To answer your questions, all of the American movies here are in English. It's fabulous. I have yet to go to Cotter's (which is the best place to get movies), but I will be heading there soon. I need to get my copy of Grey's. I think I might also pick up some good chickflicks for on the way home. I did find some very nice Coach purses. One of which matches my real Coach wallet almost perfectly! But it's difficult finding good quality ones. Some look better than others, it's hard because I know which colors Coach does not offer, and they have a lot of those colors here. I don't want to look too fake! Oh and yes, it would be amazing if being pale was fashionable in the US. With the genes in our family I think we would be all set. I'm so glad that you had a good time in DC. You're right, vacations need itineraries. I'm a pro at that after Disney :o) Oh and Joe was very happy to find that him and Brett are in the same class this semester. They will enjoy eachother's company I'm sure. Let's just hope they actually pay attention ;o) I miss you tons honey.

Grandpa and Grandma K. Thank you for the email! I am praying for you both for as Grandma told me the other day "your golden years are rusting". I hope all of the health issues get worked out soon. I will be praying for you in your knee surgery Grandpa and you with your back Grandma. I'm glad that you didn't have to go into the hospital the other night, but it seems as though you gave the family a scare. Have fun tomorrow at Aunt Beth and Uncle John's and with Aunt Joyce and Kirk as well. Give them all my love. I love you both so much and I can't wait to see you when you get back. Put August 7 on your calendar because Mom will be cooking me a great meal before I head off to camp the next day... right mom?

Lastly, Joe: you are camping right now, but you will read this soon. I hope you had an amazing time camping. I'm sure you had a blast. I can't wait until Labor Day Weekend! Thank you for the email before you left and hopefully I will hear from you again before I leave on Thursday. Love you tons. Oh, and remember that you are supposed to contact a travel agent while I am gone. I am giving you very few jobs during this wedding planning, so please have a good attitude and look into it! I know you can do it. :o) Love you!