Day 51 Field Trip Eve

Tomorrow is July 31st, Harry Potter’s birthday. It is also the day our field trip starts, and I think this is a good sign for the rest of the week. Tonight I thought “Hmm, what fun thing should I do with my Friday night?” and then I remembered that I had to somehow empty my suitcase of all my recent purchases, pack for a week of mystery-activities, and fully charge my two phones, ipod, kindle and camera tonight using a sometimes functioning outlet. I guess those things are all fun in their own way.

So I don’t plan on taking my computer on this field trip (I may be making a huge mistake, I’ll let you know by next Sunday) so I’ll be kicking it old school with a pen, journal, and limited amount of picture space on my camera. We’ll see how well I do. As an introduction to what we’re doing on this field trip, here’s a brief overview of my itinerary (and my opinions, of course):
Saturday: Expo in Shanghai with other interns (Remember my last experience at the Expo? I am not dying to go back, but alas, I expect I will have to do less pleasant things this week)

Sunday: Classes and lectures pretty much all day on topics like “China Development Road”, “NGOs in China,” and “From Harvard to China”; at 4:00 pm we leave for Xi’An via train

Monday: 8:00 am we arrive (on the same train, hopefully) in Xi’An and then get right back into a bus to go to Huangling County where we will see something cool

Tuesday: First day in Yan’an- we’ll go to a few parks, museums, and have waist drum and paper cutting lessons (likely to be the least motion sick day of the trip)

Wednesday: My baby brother’s 17th birthday and I will be at the Yellow River, maybe will throw in 17 rocks for him or something; and various historic site visits

Thursday: Visits to rural elementary schools and service project with Yan’an students

Friday: 8:30 we leave via bus to go back to Xi’An (looks like it’s going to be a seven hour ride, woohoo!)

Saturday: Travel to Famen Temple (for some reason this temple reminds me of noodles, I think it’s the similarity between Famen and Ramen…), travel to see the terracotta warriors

Sunday: Travel to the airport and back to Shanghai (I predict that the Motel 168 will be looking pretty darn good at this point, I’ll be craving my aircon and purple chairs, not to mention my internet)
So, does that sound fun or what?! No, but really, I think it’s going to be fun. Remember how a few weeks ago (I think when I went to Beijing) I said “If I can survive this week I can survive anything”? Well, I think I lied. I think it’s actually this next week that’s going to be the real indicator of my ability to survive. If you run out of things to pray for this next week, you might consider praying that I don’t run out of Dramamine :) And maybe that I discover to how to apparate in the next 24 hours, that would also be very helpful.