So today was my first official day at Yantai University here are a couple emails that i sent off to my mom and dad and im putting them on my blog so that all my faithful readers can know whats uप hey so i sent off a long email last night im not sure if you guys got it its on my laptop but thats dead and if i want toget internet for it then i have to pay 40 y a month im probably not going to do it this month but we'll see how it goes they have three computers down stairs in the lobby where i am now and they have free internet but if i get it on my laptop then i can send pic its actually only about six bucks so i might do it । im a little nervouse because i start school on monday crazy to think that im in china its way way way way way different its sort of a cross from south africa and woodinvlle and new york and seattle all in one right now its pretty warm but the humiddity makes feel way hotter then it is its sort of nice but it does mean that you have to drink about a gallon of water a day and you can nove faster then a walk lol hopefully you got my email last night it was all about the airport if you didnt ill send it off as soon as i can o by the way today i opened a bank account at the china mechant bank jake lui the guy who picked has an account at the same place and says that thats a good one to have । a word for any future travelers to china travelers checks are a really bad idea haha first most of the banks have never seen one before so you have to drive to the bank headcorters and then you have to spent the next 30 min filling out paper work and sighning little bits of paper so ive probably sold my left kidney and my soal to the chinese devil and dont know it yet lol jake helped with the whole thing though and so i think i only have to give them over when i die sort of like a delayed donation i also went and bought a cheap phone he is my number i can call you but if you call me its free i can call any on in china for like ।10 yuan a minite pretty cool so here it is 15053514802 and i think that the country code for china is 535 then the number। jake picked में उप at 8 spent all morrning ran me around the city it was crazy same sort of driving as in mexico exept with like there always being 100 people around you yantai is pretty small compared to most citys in china it ranks number 26 in population oonly 3 times the size of seattle its ridiculouse how much construction it going on and jack says that its like that in all the cities in about 20 years its going to look like star wars. my digs is pretty interesting ill send some pics when i can the shower sort of comes out of the wall and there is no door or curtain there isnt even a little wall to hide be hind i still havet met my room mate but i wanted to take a shower the bathroom door is to big to close soand with the odd shower arrangment you have to sort of lather उप and squat down to wash off the whole time i was whistiling so that if my room mate came back to our room he wouldnt come into the bathroom and see a crazy white guy squating on the floor covered in soap and trying to whistle without getting soap in his mouth its really nice out here and am looking forward to it it is kinda weird because there arnt alot of people to talk to out of the 30000 kids here but it is dtill the first day and we still have a bit of a language barrier but anyways im off to go register for my classes and stuff the brits only get here a ten tonight so we didnt do the full on tour of the school but im out of time send back an email its nice to have something to read matt tatham world traveler extrordanair

so a couple of thing that i have learned today chinese toilet paper does not have the cardbord center most of the time ice cream in china is really not as good as cold stone ice cream rice is really cheap i had fried rice for dinner tonight i ate so much i feel sick witch sucks alot my dinner cost about 36 cents us and i couldnt evn finish it i cant even think about how much food you could get for 50 bucks the most expencive thing that you can get in the cafiterea near me isnt even a dollar youi would think that a couple of leaves in a cup with boiling water would be pretty cheap definatly not as much as four pounds of rice but know the tea that i had just happened to not be on the menu and cost me about four dollars a cup i had two . DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH RICE THAT IS lol anyway those are a few of the many different things that i learned today i also got my class list and applied for my student ID very excited about starting class on monday but also very very very very very very very scared haha mo0re like nervouse this whole place takes some getting used to the staring is getting creepy haha but ill have to get used to it i decided to get internet in my room and am going to buy it tomorrow so hopefully you will get some of the first pics then i havent really taken that many and there are alot of africa pictures on there from your guyses trip do you want me to save them or can i deleate them of of the card just wanted to know talk to yuou all later i expect a long email P.S. China smells funny

My Going Away Party And Some Pics

These are some pictures of my going away party, getting ready to go to China we had it in my back yard. For food for the party we dug a big pit in the back yard filled it with coals then put a 50 pound pig in it let it cook for 24 hours then dug it up only to find that it really hadn't cooked at all and that most of it was still raw well it had been sunny all week and we had invited over 50 people to come and the weather chose that day to rain. The Sky's opened and everyone ended up huddling under the few umbrellas that we had set up just in case so we had to dig up the raw pig in the rain but i think that it probably turned out for the best because one one the people that we had invited was actually a Chef and so he helped to save the day but cutting up and cooking Wilbur on the BBQ  and i think that it probably tasted better that way. So in the end i think that the party ended up great one of my very good friends who has lived across the road from me since i was in sixth grades dad sang for us at the party He was pretty amazing!!!

http://web.mac.com/marktatham/2008/Farewell.html#grid

Im still trying to figure out how to put pictures up on my blog so if anyone reads this and knows how and you want to tell me then just leave it in a comment lol thanx

The intro to Me

So this will be my first post on my blog, right now i am at home in the United States getting all of my stuff ready to go off to school in China I'm going to be there for about six months studying to learn the Chinese language. A little about me, I live and pretty much grew up in Woodinville Washington and the surrounding area. I love everything about traveling from experiencing the new cultures and Foods to all the adventures along the way down to the lack of sleep and extra tie spent in the bathroom (get some quality time to think about your trip.) Though i think that is all because my family does allot of traveling so I have been to 12 country's and 4 continents as of this week,  next week it will be 5 out of 7 and I'm only 18 so i think I'm doing pretty well.  I love all food except peanut butter and bananas but if there isn't anything else then ill eat them, I'm about 6 foot 180 pounds (its all muscle) and drop dead SEXY!!! I have never done a blog before but i have been saving up all my money that i made though out high school and with some help from my parents have managed to part way fund this adventure as well as being able to by my self a new laptop pretty exiting but anyway i thought that now that i have this amazing piece of technology that i should start up a blog and continue it all the way through while I'm in China and beyond. So with all that i hope that all who read this blog enjoy it as much as i like writing it (Cheesy i know but it works)