We want to see the PRC!

Alan and I got the official word a few weeks ago, we are headed to Yangzhong, Jiangus, China, to study abroad and teach English at Yangzhong Foreign Language Middle School. We will be there four and a half months. We depart August 21st and arrive back in the U.S. December 31st. It will be a crazy adventure that we are both extremely excited for. We are hoping to keep our blog updated everyday, or at least once a week. Just depending on how busy we are. However due to the internet restrictions in China, I am not sure if I can share our blog on Facebook while we are there. So if you are reader from Facebook, and want my blog posts in China please email or message me your address so I can add you to our email list when we update our blog! 

One of the best parts of going to China is our great friends the Bein's are coming with us! (They started a blog too, here is the link for theirs.) We both will be in the same area but different schools. Which will be great because then we can all travel on the weekends together. In the mean time we are gearing up and preparing ourselves for the 13 hour flights that we encounter on our way over there. It sounds pretty bad, but I promise I will sleep most of the way. 

Now a little about Yangzhong, Jiangus, China. Yangzhong is in the cradle of the Yangtze River and is located in the middle of Jiangsu Province. The island was formed 300 years ago during a flood and has an equivalent area of 128 square miles. In Montana terms, it is about five times the size of Missoula. There is a current population of 430,000 people, which is about half of the population of Montana. 

There is a lot of things we are looking forward to experiencing and seeing while we are in China. A few of our top items are...

• Seeing the Great Wall 
• Riding down the Yangtze River on a bamboo raft
• Seeing Panda Bears
• Visiting the Terra-cotta Warriors 
• Riding in a Pedal Taxi
• (Alan is excited about Bullet Trains) 
• Going into the Forbidden City 
• Eating new foods 
• Heavens Gate- the largest natural arch way in the world
• Teaching English

This move to China will be a life changing experience for us, and we can not wait for it to start- 

T-minus 25 days!