Preparations for the trip
I'm so excited about going back to visit china. It has been about 4 years since I had last visited my grandmother and grandfather, my cousins, and everyone in the family. It is hard keeping in touch with family halfway around the world but the spread of broadband and the internet has definitely made it cheaper (almost free) and easier. We call each other on Skype, chat on MSN, and email pictures. However, nothing beats going back there to acutally visit and experience the hussle and bustle of China. I can't wait to eat all the truly 100% authentic Chairman Mao approved Chinese cuisine like peking duck and pedestrian, yet wonderful streetfare like bottled yogurt and fried "pancakes".
During my last visit, I used up almost a dozen D8 tapes. I wanted to preserve the ephemeral memories, although everytime the smell of the exhaust of a bus brings back images of Jinzhou and beijing. This trip, I got a new Kodak 5 MP camera with 1 gig SD card. That's enough for almost 700 pictures and I intend to fill it up within the first week. That's in addition to god knows how many hours of tape on my video camera.
YAY!!! Only 25 days left until Take OFF!!!