I am up too late. Morning will be here before I know it and I have a lot of preparing to do. I leave for China in less than 48 hours and I still haven’t laid out a schedule here like I said I would do. I’ve been trying to get little piddly things done here at home so I will have less to worry about tomorrow when I’m actually packing for the trip.

Things didn’t work out this week as I had planned. Monday was going to be an extra preparation day for me to lay out things, get my papers and lists in order, etc. But. . . Monday at work I got a phone call from my friend s. She told me that our friend k’s mother had just had a wreck and k’s dog had been killed in the accident. Not good. I didn’t know if the mom had been injured or if her dad was also in the accident. I was pretty sick to my stomach. Also, I did  know that k’s dog was VERY dear to her (I did happen to love him too).  I spent Monday night sitting with k and trying to be there for her as best I could. That consisted mostly of just being present. S and I also went to k’s apartment and packed up some clothes so she wouldn’t have to go home for a couple of days. So, right now I have dog food in my closet until k feels okay enough to decide what to do with it. It was and is pitiful. I hate seeing a friend hurt like that. Also, this accident came at the wrong time. I hate to leave town and not be able to be here for my friend.

On to my life. I’m anxiously awaiting my vacation that begins tomorrow when I leave work at noon. When I said, “anxiously,” I wasn’t kidding! Since my friend had trouble earlier in the week, I spent two of my nights being there for her. That left tonight and tomorrow. I haven’t done half the things I wanted to have done by today. Tomorrow I just wanted to be able to go through what I had chosen to pack and make sure I have everything organized. Then I was to head to bed early, all comfortable like, because I knew I had everything in order. *sigh* Tomorrow is going to be a scramble.

Short and sweet, here is the plan for China:

Fly to Shanghai. Book it from Pudong airport to Hongqiao airport and catch another flight for Beijing. Then it will be 3 nights in Beijing. 2 of those days we’ll tour whatever we feel like in the city. 1 day we’ll go up to the wall and hike from Jinshanling to Simatai. (That’s my favorite! As of now the weather is favorable. I can’t wait.) When we’re done in Beijing, we’ll take an overnight sleeper train to Xian. We’ll spend 1 day there where we’ll see the terracotta warriors. That evening after the warriors we’ll get on another plane and fly down to Guilin to spend 1 night. We may take a river cruise from Guilin to Yangshuo where we’ll spend the next night. Guilin/Yangshuo is known for it’s magnificent peaks and beautiful scenery. After our visit in Yangshuo we’ll have to catch a bus back up to the airport in Guilin and fly to Hangzhou. We’ll be staying with some of my friends who are teaching English at a University there. We’ll have 3 days with them before going back to Shanghai to catch our flight back to The States. Shoo! It’s going to be busy.

The best part about this vacation is I will feel like I’ve been gone for a very long time. I welcome the extreme change of scenery that I am about to experience. There is so much beauty around the world and I don’t want to miss it.