PDO Day 1

It is now 8:07 am (PDO day #2). We're just about to head over to the American Councils office in 20 mins, but I thought I'd tell you guys about PDO Day #1 (yesterday). Btw, sorry no pictures yet! I forgot to bring my usb cable down to the Internet Kiosk, so I'll probably have to upload the pictures later.

So I got to the Embassy Suites around 12 pm after a 9.5 hour direct flight from HNL to Dulles airport. Surprisingly, the flight wasn't too bad. The whole flight was silent (no crying babies) with some minor turbulences.

When I got to the hotel, my room wasn't ready yet so I had to wait in the lobby for several hours. (I was also the first one to fly into DC and the first one to get to the hotel). More NSLI-Y kids started trickling in around 4-5 pm. We all made a huge circle in the lobby and just hung around (asking each person their name, age, city, school, host city, etc). There were so many kids from the DC/Virginia/East Coast area. Also, there were a lot of Nanjing people too! The Nanjing group seemed pretty close; they all seem to know each other already. So far, I was the only one going to Hangzhou that had arrived at the hotel.

The icebreakers weren't too awkward. We did a little "speed dating" game, a human knot and many more. The RDs made us use Chinese for a majority of the activities though, so that was really nervewracking. We had to put ourselves in order by birthday using only Chinese, and each person also had to say what they wanted to learn in China (in Chinese).(Note: everyone here is so good in Chinese. It's a little intimidating).

My roommates are also really nice: Kelsey (who is going to Hangzhou with me) and Sylvia (who is going to Suzhou. Btw, she has her own blog at sylviachinasummer.webs.com)

Anyways, I gotta go. We have a full day of lectures today, and then we leave for Dulles airport (Hangzhou kids) at 3 am tomorrow.

Until next time,
Christine

DC, I'll See You Soon

Less than 3 hours before I head to the airport to catch my overnight flight to DC and I don't exactly know how I feel right now. It just doesn't seem real. I'm excited, yet anxious and nervous.

This trip will be the first of many things. It will be the first time I:

• Travel by myself without any friends and/or family members
• Spend an entire 7 weeks away from my parents (the longest I've gone was 3 days)
• Travel to DC and China
• Travel outside of the United States (yep, this is my first international experience!) 

I hope my parents and my sister have a fun & safe flight and trip to Vegas and California! They'll be leaving 2 hours after my plane departs. I'll miss you guys a lot!