Birthdays, Books, and Beijing

One week down. 7 to go. This has been quite the first week. Funny story from day one. We were loading up on the bus that took us from the airport to camp. The bus driver--Buddy, loads one of my bags and says, "What, are you staying a month?" I said, "No, two."

The next night, it was one of my coworkers' birthday. So she had an invitation by word-of-mouth party out in front of her quad. It was great. We had ice cream, danced to oldies music and played cards out in the grass.

I think I am going to read more books in these next 8 weeks that I have in the last 8 months. It will be good for me though, I'm looking forward to it...here on Aug 8, 2008. (Sorry, had to put that in there.)

Tonight, they showed the opening ceremonies of the Olympics on the big screen in one of the meeting rooms here. The parade of nations was the best--people cheered for the countries they will soon call home as well as the US.

Please keep me and my new friends in your thoughts. This is an intense time of preparation, but I know it will be well worth it. Thank you for your support. Please keep in touch!