1 and 39

Jake is 1 day away from leaving for Wuhan, China. I can't believe that he actually leaves tomorrow morning! Farewell, Jake and so-long good-night sleep! See you in 18 days!

Meanwhile, 39 days to go until Mom and I leave. I received and email from the coordinator who lives in Kunming. She said the local governments are still trying to decide where we will be teaching. I am eager to find out where we will be. Yunnan is a very diverse province. It could be that we are up in the mountains close to Tibet (cold) or that we are down in the river valley near Vietnam (hot). It will be important to know so that we can pack properly. We are only allowed to take one carry on that weighs no more than 45lbs, and one small carry on.

I've been working hard on our lesson plans. Mom is going to be my assistant in the classroom-that is going to be a huge help! The organization has sent us these manuals with a theme lesson for each day and then several optional activities that go with each lesson. I flew out to Rapid City and back on Tuesday and was able to really dig into it on the plane. I was working through one of the lessons when someone tapped me on the shoulder and asked where I was going. It turned out that I was surrounded by middle school English teachers on their way to a competition in Knoxville. They were so interested and offered tips for my own class. It was really neat to be able to share the upcoming experience with them. They just kept asking questions and wanted to know more and more. I knew this opportunity would allow me to meet people in China and to share in their lives, what I didn't think about on the front end was how it would allow me opportunities to share in the lives of others that I interact with while I'm still here. It is very cool!

Page turners

It's been a busy couple of weeks at the Allen house. Strangely enough, Jake and another friend from school got an invitation for an all expenses paid trip to travel to China with their buddy who is a Chinese foreign exchange student. He leaves at the end of May for 2 1/2 weeks so all my plans for acquiring our visas and getting our vaccinations have all been bumped up a month to accommodate Jake's trip. He is excited-I will be a nervous wreck while he's gone.

Anyway-aside from all of the logistics that need my attention, I have been sticking my nose in a variety of books to help me prepare. The latest books were "The Bonesetter's Daughter" by Amy Tan and "Lost on Planet China" (I can't remember that author). The first one is a novel that I would highly recommend, it is a very good story that spans a Chinese family's lives for 3 generations. The second is the memoirs of a guy who is trying to decide if he wants to move his family to China, he travels all over the country and he gives a humor-filled account of his mishaps. That one was a bit scary-he didn't put the best light on things. It actually made me a bit more nervous for the two trips that are coming up. I gave both of the books to Mom, I warned her but I'm afraid she might have second thoughts when she reads the second one. The good thing is that the author actually liked Yunnan. It was the only place that he visited that he gave the impression that he liked, and that is the province we will be staying in.