Wednesday December 12, 2007
Only 10 days left here!! I'm kinda excited to leave this craziness but I know that after a week or two away I will start to miss it a lot. Tomorrow I have to give my presentation for my research project and then next Thursday I have 2 finals and thats basically what I have left to do here. Nothing much has happened since I lasted posted, just a lot of studying like usual and a lot of travel plan making. I ventured to Qipu lu again to buy a coat which I did but of course I paid more because I am a foreigner... but it still wasn't that expensive. I figured it would be a good idea to have something warm while I am in eastern and northern Europe. I also have to decide what I can send home and what I can throw away because I have to cut my luggage down to about 30kg, or as close to it as I can...
I leave Shanghai at 1145 am on Saturday the 22nd on Aeroflot and I have a quick 3 and a half hour layover in Moscow, and then I arrive in Madrid, Spain at about 1000pm on the same day. I didn't get a chance to get a Russian transit visa... so hopefully nothing bad will happen to me while I try to transfer planes in Moscow. I tried twice to go to the consulate here to get one but for some reason they are only open 915 am to 1215pm... and even though I was waiting two hours and there was no one else in line, they wouldn't take me at 1215. I also bought my tickets home and to Taiwan. So I will come home on February 11, 2008 and will be home for a few days and then hopefully visit IU, then my flight to Taiwan leaves February 18. So thats all done.
Now all I have to do before I leave is try and get as close to finalizing my Europe plans as possible. Right now this is what my trip looks like
Madrid, Spain December 22-25
Marrakesh, Morocco December 25-30
Barcelona, Spain December 30- January 2
Madrid, Spain January 2-4
Aix-en-Provence, France January 4-10
Oslo, Norway January 10-12
Krakow, Poland January 12-15(?)
Prague, Czech Republic January 16(?)-18(?) (by train)
Bratislava, Slovakia January 20(?)-23(?) (by train)
Madrid, Spain January 23(?)-31
Paris, France January 31-February 3
Athens, Greece February 3-5(?)
Istanbul, Turkey February 6-8(?) (by train)
Sofia, Bulgaria February 8-10(?) (by train)
Madrid, Spain February 10-11
Chicago, U.S.A. February 11
Half of the trip, with the ?, are all not for sure yet cuz I haven't booked anything but that is what I think is going to happen as of now. I'll probably have a few couple more posts before I leave here...Leave a comment!
Also... I might have finished applying for my Egypt program over the summer... but I don't know for sure because they don't ever like to answer e-mails... even when they get 4 or 5 of them... but anyways that is going to be a whole nother issue trying to get there from Taiwan... but I guess I don't have to worry about that yet.
pictures!
Nanjing pics
Taiwan pics Pt 1
Taiwan pics Pt 2
