Now I'm officially ready to start my adventure in China! After another 2 hours on the road up North to Frankfurt I picked up my Chinese Visa. Thanks to the disability of the Chinese Visa Service Center to send me the confirmed Visa, I got to enjoy another roadtrip to Bankfurt. To be honest, I actually enjoy riding my car (okay, my mom's car) alone, it gives you time to let your thoughts float and loudly complain about the other drivers' skills on the road. Luckily the whole Visa process for China is pretty easy. With the word Visa memories of the Visa application process for the US came up, and with that pictures of the 100 documents filled with questions I had to answer. But guess what, at my first visit at the Service Center I filled out exatly 2 sheets, 10 min - PAM. Done. That's how I like it. So you can imagine, picking up the Visa was even faster. I think I spent 5 min in there, paying the fee and being congratulated by a Chinese staff to my upcoming departure. And spend a total of 8 hours and a whole tank fill for it. Oh well...

Alright. So this is now officially my very first blog entry ever. This is exciting! I decided to start a blog after I found out that the Chinese government is not in favor of Facebook, meaning the usage of my beloved and easiest way of communication is prohibited during my stay in China. So I figured, to keep you all updated and to give you the opportunity to get in touch with me besides writing email, it would be fun to start a blog and share my adventures here with all of you. After I've dreamed about going to China for about 4 years now, I can barely believe this whole journey is really happening. After what seemed like a never ending application process with my Chinese agency, I can now happily say that I will spend the next 6 months with a Chinese family in Chengdu. They have 2 kids, Rex and Amy (7 and 4) and both parents are doctors in a nearby hospital. After writing tons of emails back and forth and talking via Skype, I can say that they seem like a great family, really active and interested in other cultures. Both kids go to an American School in Chengdu, so they already know some English which will make the beginning a lot easier for both me and them. Additionally the family has a nanny and a housekeeper living with them 24/7. After receiving the great news about the final match from my agency, I immediately started looking for flights, and Right On (Thank you Lara :-) ) - found my perfect flight leaving Germany August, 24th. So now it's officially only 4 more weeks till I'll be heading east for Chengdu in the Sichuan Province. Haha, how unreal. I'll keep you posted about things that are happening including my visa application process, packing and anything else I can think of while sitting here typing. Hope you enjoy this blog as much as I do! So long, Ronja