Traveling the World

My novel is coming along quicker than I could have imagined. I had spent the last 6 weeks struggling with scratching out a horrible 1/3 of a page per 2 hours (roughly 1/3rd page per day). My friend with writing experience assisted me tirelessly, despite my incessant harassment to read my newest iteration. Finally, one rainy night last week, as I was laying on my couch with the laptop nestled against my crotch, she remanded me, exclaiming in a rage that I needed to trust myself. Instantly, I popped back to reality and the artificial light from the computer screen shone into my eyes. I knew what must be done, and went about diligently learning different writing techniques.

Although my writing never feels good enough, I am beginning to delve deeper into my creative mind and pull out more strongly crafted emotive descriptions. In doing so, I am gaining confidence in my own ability, which has sped up the writing process, and pushed me to play with the words and methods I employ.

Aside from writing, I have joined a website called Interpals, which has been great fun. People from around the world message me on a daily basis to talk about random things, but the hard part is figuring out when they’ll be online (thanks timezones..) to continue the conversation. These meetings have fueled me to pick the site of my next trip (it’s a toss up still between Russia, India, Turkey, or a rehash of Thailand/Malaysia/Indonesia because I’ve missed a lot in those places).

The search for jobs in China officially begins today, but I remember the process being long and arduous. Hopefully, my connections within the Wuhan community will make the process painless and quick. The employees at work verbally count down the days until my departure, and I applaud their enthusiasm, knowing that they’ll be stuck here even after I’m gone. Another thing to appreciate is that this time my body won’t require immunizations that cost a billion dollars, I know where to buy flights from, and I know where the best places to work are and which apartments are the cheapest and best quality for my money.

China.. I’m almost there..

I know I haven’t been updating this website lately, but if you go to my personal blog you’ll know why. Just as a side note before I continue, today is the 701st day I’ve been in China. Since I’ve been so busy since March working my butt off to save money for this trip (so far I have $7000 saved), I’ll give you a preliminary budget and outline for my USA trip: