My Travels to the East Coast

So I took about 1,000 pictures when I was gone for 2 weeks, so I will just post a few from each place we went, and if you want to see more go to jakeandbritney.shutterfly.com If a password is needed to view it is: Travel (case sensitive)

Me and my aunt at the Lobster Bake...yes they are alive, and they were caught that morning!

My dad getting ready for the lobster
And they lobster is no longer alive:(
My nephew, Parker
My niece, Mackenzee
My niece, Eliza...if you have every seen Disney's Robin Hood, this reminds us of Prince John
Daren my brother Me, Sumerae, Erica, and Aimee

So this is at the Visitor Center at Prince Edward Island

Me, my Grandma, Courtney (sister), Mom, Aunt Sherree, and Great Aunt Jane

This is along the Red Sand BeachesGreen Gables
Lighthouse on PEI
Courtney, Me, and Mom
My cute grandparents A place on the side of the road to eat lobster...it was quite the place
Court, Mom, and Grandma in the Sacred Grove
Niagara Falls

Mom, Aunt Jane, and Courtney
American Side of Niagara Falls

Allright, Here's the Scoop

I'm not sure if anyone is even aware of this blot yet, but I figure it's been a little over two weeks since coming to China and it's time to update anyone who might stumble onto this blog. I should have Britney send out a mass e-mail or something, otherwise I might end up spending the summer blogging to myself.

I'm living in a city called 青岛, for all of those who speak Chinese. For those who don't, I'm living in Qingdao, a city on the northern coast of China. It's a great city, as Chinese cities go, good people, good weather(relatively), and by Chinese standards, it's very clean. That being said, it's still dirtier than any city I've visited in the US. It's one of the few Olympic cities (the sailing events are all taking place in the harbor outside of the school offices), so they're definitely making a concerted effort to clean up the city and improve the landscaping and overall appearance of the city.

As some of you may know, there has been a huge algae bloom in the ocean here. The vast majority of the coast is covered in a 2 foot thick layer of green carpet, which just also happens to stink to high heaven. The method of dealing with said algae is to scoop it out of the ocean, load it into dump trucks, and drive it out of the city on a main road, which I just happen to live next to. Long story short, I have a long, stinky walk to the office, but fortunately I only have to come here once a week or so.

I basically have 4 goals that I'm expected to achieve this summer.

1) Find an Apartment. Done, Pictures and story to come later.

2) Daily meetings with a tutor. I have a nice teacher who I managed to talk into helping me with my thesis(more difficult than I thought it should have been). We meet for two hours a day, from 8:00 am to 10:00 am in my apartment, and with one week in the books, so far I'm really pleased with him.

3) Community Service Project. This is by far the most up-in-the-air aspect of the summer, because as of now I have no idea what I am going to do, and our teachers expect us to have something figured out by the end of next week. We'll see.

4) Thesis. Although I still have a lot of research to finish(and begin, for that matter), I'm planning on writing all of the non-research related stuff by the end of the summer. Hopefully, I'll have somewhere between 30 and 40 pages ready to print before Britney gets here, but we all know how I love to procrastinate, so, again we'll have to see.

Goodbye my Loove! (In Jim Carrey Voice)

Well Jake left on Thursday for China and everything went smoothly this time. He only brought 2 bags for 10 months (note he wants me to bring 1 bag for 8 months, but we will see:) When we arrived at the airport and went to check his bags in, they informed us that checking more than 1 bag will now cost 25$. Of course in my mind I'm thinking a one-way ticket to China already cost enough and he is only allowed 1 bag, that is ridiculous! The other one he wanted to check besides his huge bag, was a bag he could of carried on, but he didn't want to since I made him have 4 stops along the way. (Phoenix, Los Angeles, Seoul Korea, and then China, because it was cheaper, making his total flight time 31 hours). So the lady said that she wasn't able to print his bag tags and she was going to hand write the tags. So it took her probably about 15 min. to stick all of these bag tags together and try and fit them on his luggage. She stuck, stapled, and gerryrigged the tags together and then stuck them on his bag. I leaned over to Jake and said, "I sure hope you packed an extra set of clothes in yourcarryon, because I highly doubt that your luggage is going to make it to all those places." Jake did not carry any extra clothes on, but he made it to China, 31 hrs later and with all of his luggage.

PS I think with all the handwriting of the bag tags, the lady forgot to charge us the 25$ for the extra bag!