“Everything you want’s a dream away, Under this pressure under this weight, We are diamonds taking shape.”
For the last solid month, I've been soaking in knowledge from everywhere. Books, articles, photographs, testimonies, conversations, + more. Knowledge about China + the region where I will be landing on Thursday (morning for y'all). I've diligently been practicing my Mandarin, doing extensive research on visual stunning locations, constantly drooling over ALL THE STREET FOOD, + preparing for massive amounts of lu cha, or green tea, and xiao long bao, or soup dumplings (!).
Wednesday morning, a plane is going to take off super early in the morning and the awesome Lauren Hubbard and I are headed to create an awesome (I so hope!) virtual reality documentary for that school down tobacco road. I'm so blessed to be traveling to Duke Kunshan University to capture the immersive experience of studying abroad in "small" town China. The university, sandwiched between Shanghai + Suzhou in the Jiangsu Province, is in a small-ish city, Kunshan. It only has around 1 million people. No big deal. Tiny, right?
While there, I'll be traveling the region including spending time in Shanghai, Suzhou, + an ancient water town Zhouzhang, known as the Venice of the East. This entire area is rich in culture, home to the ancient Chinese Kun Opera, and hairy crab. Yes, this crab has voluptuous blonde hair. For those of you who have supported me this far, and dealt with me practicing Mandarin under my breath constantly, thank you!
I won't have great access to social media platform because of the great firewall of China, but follow along with my blog to see our adventures! Click that button up top and fill out your info. I only send blog updates + nothing else...because I don't like it and I'm too lazy to torture you like that.
Until next time, zàijiàn!