Up, Up, and Away from all the other Zhong Guo Ren

I'm now almost exactly 24 hours from boarding the great silver bird and taking off. Currently I am debating the virtues of staying up the entire night before and whether that will help me adjust, which in truth will all depend if I can fall asleep right away on the plane.

I also got an email from the program coordinator this morning:
Dear all,

We received urgent notice from the Bureau of Public Health today regarding a decision by the P.R.C government on dealing with persons from the infected areas of human cases of H1N1. This government regulation states that all persons who have been to the infected areas within the last 2 weeks shall be quarantined for 7 days.

Since all of you are coming from countries within which H1N1 human cases have been found, no-one could be exempted from this new regulation.

With the support of our local institutes, program staff negotiated on the terms and conditions related to the quarantine. The result turned out to be quite successful: instead of being quarantined for 7 days, we will only need to do it for 3 days. In the meanwhile, food will be provided by our hotel for free, as well as other complimentaries such as shampoo, towels, toilet paper, etc. Internet and room phone will also be set up by the time you check in.

What you need to do:

1. Make sure you don't have a fever when you enter China. Officers from Beijing Entry/Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau (Beijing CIQ) will check every passenger once the plane lands. If you already have a fever, please do not board the plane.

2. During the quarantine, please do not leave our hotel building.

We understand that this governmental policy may cause you inconvenience. Please be reassured that we will adjust our schedule accordingly to make up for the class hours missed during the quarantine.

We appreciate your cooperation and will accommodate you as much as we can.
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3-day quarantine upon arrival. I'm not sure if this will be in a different hotel or the one we are scheduled to be in, but it sounds like our hotel in Tianjin. This will run into our scheduled city tour the first day after arrival, and will likely run into the first day of class as we'll since we arrive in China Friday afternoon and will likely get to our hotel Friday night. It'll probably be pretty boring, but oh well.

学期结束了

大家好! (Hello)

I’m now only 9 days away from getting on my 13 hour flight from O’Hare to Beijing. I finished finals last Wednesday so since then I’ve basically been hanging out with friends and slowly getting ready to go. I just ordered new contacts which should arrive before I leave, and have been slowly (as my mother can attest to) unpacking everything I brought home from my Madison apartment. It’s quite a lot of stuff and much is still sitting in the basement, where it will probably stay for the next 8.5 days.

I haven’t really started packing yet, other than to make a mental list. I’ll need to remember to bring hand towels, among other things, as they don’t provide those despite the fact we are living in a ‘hotel.’ Mostly though, packing will be sort of like for a long vacation: laptop, camera, large bottles of toiletries instead of travel-sized, tons of shorts and shirts, 1 pair nice pants, 1 pair jeans, and that’s it. The room I’m in will be lacking a proper dresser so I’ll be living out of my suitcase, technically speaking.

One fortunate thing is that I have been granted a multiple-entry visa. This will allow me to visit Hong Kong, Macau, or some any other country if I so desire. The visa is in my passport below:

Last year I was given a single-entry visa, so this may end up being more convenient. The 多 means many, more, multiple, etc… We have a ten day field trip during the program, and I have also decided to stay in China for a week after the program ends. I have a friend from high school who goes to Northwestern University and we will have some time to go wherever. Macau is China’s gambling capital (it is illegal on the mainland) so that might be fun.

When actually in Tianjin, I’ll be taking Classical Chinese along with one semester of fourth-year Chinese. The textbooks for these will all be available in China so I don’t need to pick them up here. I did however go to the bookstore and buy plenty of Wisconsin-themed gifts. Last summer I met a friend named Shino (her Chinese name is actually Xiaohuan) and her parents and aunt invited me to eat with them several times, and simply everyone in China loves American stuff and anything with English on it, so they should like the various clothing items I got them.

That’s all I’ve done to prepare. Spring Break (in Guatemala) took care of all the shots and such that I need. I have already notified my bank that I’ll be in China. The next week will breeze by then I’ll be back in Tianjin again. I’m already salivating over the food I’ll be having soon.
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This post was made on my new blog, http://blog.studyabroad.wisc.edu/index.php/archives/category/summer-2009/eric-mathis a week ago. I will be dual posting to both blogs probably.