Back to the Motherland!

Hello Everyone!

The first half of the program - the Chinese phase - is now over, and I am back in my home-country Canada. We are stationed in the beautiful capital city of Saskatchewan right now - Regina. It feels really weird to be back. It probably doesn't help that I am suffering from a severe case of jet lag, too. Regina actually has snow already... I didn't see that one coming. I also didn't expect to see Christmas lights up already. Completely forgot about that! I just ate four slices of pizza though, and we're about to go for a swim and sauna... So I'm quite content.

I've got some good stories to share about Beijing city! In short... I'm very glad that we were the CWY group who went to Yichang, and not Beijing. It was way too huge, and we got attacked by street merchants every where we went. But, as you know, we went to see the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. The time we spent in Bejing was short, but we had such a blast. I think my favorite part was waking up at 5:00 to see the raising flag ceremony in Tiananmen Sqaure. Few members of the team were brave enough to wake up early enough to see it - which was a real pity for them. Ooh, and we saw the countdown for the 2008 Olympic games, which got me all excited for when I go back to take the gold medal for diving. YICHANG IS AWESOME!

We'll be going to Moose Jaw in two days... I'm getting nervous! We actually meet and go home with out host families right after we do our 'What we Learned in Yichang' presentation... Which I am the host of... So, let's all hope I make a good first impression!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I am still alive after the twenty hour train ride, visiting the capital of China, the thirteen hour plane ride to Canada followed by a six hour wait in Vancouver, and another (brief) flight to Regina. I even lost my passport (which makes it the second time during this program... W00t! I got the record!), but right when we were about to board our plane they called me to the front desk because somebody had reported it. Hey - I could have gotten to Regina without it... Let's just be glad I didn't loose it in China! I know I know, I should be more responsible... I'm working on it! JF actually lost his ticket moments before going through security, so we are all crossing our fingers in hopes that he gets reimbursed. Cause that just flat-out sucks. Hu Song seems to like it here so far, but we have not done much outside the hotel.

Okay! Hope everything is going well back home! I'll talk to you all later.

-Joe