I'm horrible at preparing things

In thirty-six hours, I will be on a plane heading over the North Pole to Beijing, the capital of China, where I will tour for two weeks with my mother, after which I will head to Taipei, Taiwan, where I will need to find an apartment and register for classes before I stay there for nine months to study Chinese at the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University.

The sum of my preparation so far is buying a new laptop (my old one was making horrible noises and I fear it would just be a matter of time before I fried the CPU), buying some snacks for the plane, arranging my visas, and checking on a few apartments in Taiwan that I could potentially live during the academic year. I still need to pack (not only my clothes for the trip but also other clothes to be sent later), install a few more things on my computer, see a few people, plan things in Taiwan while my mother is with me, and clean up my room before I leave on Thursday morning.

I assure you that I've had a great last few weeks in the USA. I've gotten to see many of my friends and relatives and spend quality time with them before heading overseas. In a few cases when I didn't think I'd see someone I'd see them at a random place, which worked well for me. I'd like to thank everyone again for their support and good wishes.

I think I'm going to set up a few more things on my computer since it's relatively quiet to do and it will deter me from messing around on my computer tomorrow (or that's the plan, at least). Later!

Ted

PS. Based on previous experiences in China, I think I will have trouble reading comments that you leave (thanks to the Great Firewall of China, all websites at blogspot.com are blocked). I believe I'll be able to read it in Taiwan, however. Feel free to e-mail me at ted (dot) glomski (at) gmail (dot) com (replace the (dot) and (at) with . and @ respectively) if you'd like to say something while I'm in China (August 9-24).

EDIT: I think I may have figured out how to check comments without having to visit my blog, so comment away. You can still e-mail me if you feel so inclined.