I must say that it didn't really hit me that I was really leaving until I was in San Francisco waiting to board my plane to China. I read an e-mail from my mom and started crying. I was talking to my best friend in the world on skype. She was telling me everything was going to be ok and that I would have a blast. I was saying good bye and writing some final e-mails before I took off. I talked to my friend until just before boarding. I knew that once I stepped on the plane from there it was all new and I didn't know what was going to happen. If you know me at all I don't like the unknown. I have to know the plan and wear I am going. I stick to the route that I know. In math I don't like not knowing the answer because I don't like the unknown. Once I got on the plane it was in gods hands. I had also never made this trip without adults who knew what they were doing more than me (or so I thought at the time). During the plane ride I spent much of the time clutching this necklace my mother got for me in China town. It had the characters for success on it. I was clutching it and hoping for success. I was also singing a bit of a spiritual my choir always sang. I have always found peace and strength in music so I turned to it at this time. I kept singing: "Lord listen to your child praying, Lord send your spirit in this place. Send me Love, send me power, send me grace." I was worried about going through customs and finding people from the company. I was worried carrying four very large bags through customs by myself. Although to make myself feel better I compared myself to Jershey Shore (yes I watch it to make fun of them, but I am no die hard fan. It is mindless entertainment). The girls from Jersey Shore went to Italy with more bags than I did and they were staying for a shorter amount of time. They couldn't carry their bags and were absolute fools in the airport. I figured I had to better than they did. Indeed I did. I got all my bags and headed out of customs no problem. I found the person waiting for me no problem. I was quickly thrown on a bus headed to Wuxi. They held the bus for me and the bus driver seemed very angry about the fact I had so many large bags. I didn't have to speak much Chinese to know that. It turns out the new physics teacher working in Wuxi was on the bus too. He was easy to find since he was the only white person on the bus. We chatted for most of the trip. We almost got off in Shanghai. We figured we had traveled a distance and were in Wuxi. However we were just making a stop at the other train station for more people. We saw people get back on the bus, so we did too. When we arrived in Wuxi the physics teacher had fallen asleep, but I couldn't because I was just so excited. I was trying to get to know my new home as much as possible. I was in awe and wonderment. However I was greeted by a rock from Lake Tai Hu. I studied this in great detail in my class on Chinese Gardens. They are placed on many streets in Wuxi since Lake Tai Hu is near by. When I saw this I felt like I was home and that I had made the right decision to come to China. I felt like I belonged here. It was a great feeling after being so afraid. Below is one of the rocks I was talking about. This one is located in a residential area near the other high school in Wuxi which is located near down town.
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