Some news

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Where I stayed
Cloudland Hostel
(Kunming hotels)

Flag of China  ,
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

No trip to China is complete without a whole lot of spit. I'd seen plenty of people dig deep into the bowels of their throat to spit out as much saliva as possible while walking down the street, but had not had the lovely experience of bus spitting until my ride from Lijiang to Kunming. Obviously it does not matter that a bus could be considered indoors. The Chinese don't seem to care. Spitting into the bus aisle might as well have been a sport. If it were, I'm pretty sure the man three rows in front of me would have won.

After the lovely bus ride to Kunming, I had to take a city bus to get to the hostel. This bus was completely packed with only a couple of millimeters of space between people. Always fun while wearing a massive backpack. It was made even more fun when the bus crashed into a car trying to make a right turn in front of the bus. Luckily no one was injured, but we all had to file off the bus into the middle of a busy street and pack into the next bus to come by. With the way the Chinese drive, I'm surprised this is the first accident I've witnessed.

Kunming was a basic city - nothing special. I found a couple of nice parks and a LOT of big shopping malls. It was a decent place to hang out for a couple of days before my flight to Shanghai to meet my parents.

Now, a break from your regularly scheduled blog for an update on my future. As some of you already know, I've been applying to graduate schools for the fall (I first started getting behind on my blogging when I started filling out applications - something I would not recommend that anyone try to do while traveling as it's a bit masochistic). After months of waiting for responses and then considering my options, I have decided to attend Tufts University in Boston this fall. I will be working on a Masters of Public Health Nutrition. In addition to leading me on the path toward a new career, this also means I have an end date for my travels. I haven't booked any tickets yet, but I'm planning on heading back to the US in the end of July. I'm going to try to spend a week in the Bay Area before heading to Chicago for a week. Then I'll head out to Boston to hopefully find an apartment, find a job, and get settled in before classes start. I'll be sure to post here once I have my tickets and dates set.
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