Ready or Not, Here we Go!

Well, not quite yet. Here’s the plan:

In case you didn’t know, we’re going to China for three weeks. This will be my third trip. The first was one week. The second was two weeks, and yes, you guessed it, this trip will be three weeks long. We’re leaving the apartment today, and driving up to my aunt’s in Lisle, where we’ll park the car, have dinner, then call a taxi or limo to take us to the airport. The limos are actually comparable to the taxis, and are far more convenient and luxurious! Our flight leaves at 1am, and we were told by the travel agency to be there THREE HOURS ahead of time… So I guess we’ll take off around 9:30 or so. I think that’s a load of crap, we’re going to end up sitting at the terminal for 2 hours. Oh well… Better safe than sorry, I guess.

Once we get on the plane, the flight is many many hours, to Seoul, Korea. There’s a 3-hour layover there, then we fly to Tianjin. I actually don’t remember what time we’re supposed to touch down, but it’ll take an hour or two to get through customs, get our luggage, all that. From there, we’ll probably be beat and tired and wanna just go to sleep.

I bought this thing, which is supposed to purify water, for $100. Hongie was giving me a hard time about how much money I spent on it, but if you were in my shoes you’d do the same thing, buster. That there Mao Tse Tung’s revenge, or “Travelers diarrhea”, is nothing to take lightly. It’s horrible. Anyway- this thing is basically a wand, with a digital display, and a 3-inch long tube that emits ultraviolet light. supposedly, if you stick it into a cup or bottle of water, and stir it around for 90 seconds or so, it kills 99.99% of the bacteria, viruses, and some other microscopic thing which I forget. critters. I expended some brownie points to get it… I hope the damn thing works.

HA! The auto-correct function wants to turn “Hongie” into “Hoagie”. Awesome! My wife is a sandwich!

I also packed two large bottles of generic Pepto-Bismol, and I have a prescription antibiotic as well, that may help if I do end up getting it anyway.

Another thing I’m bringing are a bunch of recipes I got off the internet, and all my measuring cups and spoons! I hope, that when we get there, I am able to procure an oven, and all the ingredients to bake lots of yummy treats! Cookies, Bread… Yeah, all the things I’m not supposed to eat because I’m “Glucose Intolerant”. Hey, man, I got nothin’ against glucose. But my body does. It’s basically one step away from diabetes, and too much sugar & carb consumption could tip me over the edge when I’m older. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to pump out large quantities of yummy tasty treats if I can! and maybe even cook some good dinners! Apparently, though, it’s pretty tough to locate many ingredients there, and they may end up being really expensive. We’ll see.

So, that’s basically it… the girls are both still sleeping, this is my last time to myself. Naturally I fired up Starcraft and played one last single player game. I’m pretty bored with the standard game, though. I can’t wait for the new version to come out!

In case you didn’t know, China blocks Facebook. I can’t reach people via Facebook there, and Google as you may know is talking about pulling out of China as well; which would mean more limited access to my e-mail. Of course, I won’t have a phone; and if I did, there are only a couple times per day that are convenient to talk to people on the other side of the world: Early in the morning, and late at night!

So I’m going to try and reach this blog; and keep updates through this channel.