Last Day in America!

Women kuai qu zhongguo! (We're leaving for China soon)

Today is our last day in the States! The time has simply flown by what with moving out of our apartments and trying to see everyone one last time. We left Austin for good on Monday night; we packed Greg's beat up little Saturn to the roof and made the hot, AC-less three hour drive to Houston.

Hanging out with Greg's family and Tim and Steph has occupied us for the past few days. We went to Tim's White Coat Ceremony last night for his medical school where he took the hippocratic oath and received his white doctor's coat. Go gege Tim daifu!

Right now Greg and I are sitting in Terminal S11 at the Seattle airport, waiting to depart for Beijing. It was about a five hour flight from Houston to Seattle, and I am definitely not looking forward to sitting down for this upcoming 11 hour flight. Bu hao! :(

But, it's all for the sake of adventure! Just now in the food court we met a lady that was flying to Switzerland to climb Mt. Blanc and had been all over the world. That's the best part about travel - meeting so many new, amazing people that make you want go out and do something incredible with your own life.

To be honest, as soon as Greg and I walked into Bush International Airport, all of the bittersweet feelings of leaving everyone behind vanished and now there's just excitement flitting around inside our tummies. Not that we won't miss y'all - far from it - but I think we're ready for this adventure to start.

- Lauren

Introduction and Getting Prepared

Ni hao ma!

I figure to get this post started, I'll give you more information about our departure. We are flying out from Houston on August 13th in the morning to Newark and then onward to Beijing. I didn't really think of New Jersey as an international jumping point, but I suppose it makes sense.

This weekend Lauren and I move most of our belongings to San Antonio with Tim and Stephanie. For those of you who don't know, Tim is my friend and ex-roommate who is moving into an apartment in Houston with Stephanie, Lauren's sister. We are taking much to Lauren and Stephanie's dad's house and helping them move to Houston from there. When we return, we will pack the rest of our stuff to take to San Antonio and spend much time saying goodbye to friends before we go to Houston to catch our flight.

Preparing for a long international trip is mostly freezing accounts, getting shots (luckily none are advised fro Bejing), and making sure finances are good (student loans and costs of living abroad.) Lauren and I still need to get dental check ups before we leave, but other than that we only need to finish packing. The only hang-up I have found so far is that Verizon does not offer any year-long account freezes, so we have to cancel our accounts and pay the fees required. I am not happy with that, and will not be a returning customer when we get back.

In preparation, friends should add either gregwebster or lauren.neal to Skype so we can talk to you in person from China!

Lauren and I are definitely nervous but excited. This will be fantastic, and we are going to enjoy this so much. Thanks for coming along for the ride with us!