China, here we come!

So, I've been putting off writing my first post because I'm not exactly sure how to do this blogging thing! I mean, about a year or so ago I used to have a food blog, but it was short-lived, mainly because I was just way too busy to even cook, let alone blog. For the past 15 months I have been learning Mandarin Chinese. Monday through Friday for the past year plus, I have been in class from 8:00 in the morning to 3:00 in the afternoon. That doesn't include the time I spent at home, a total hermit, on the couch with my husband, memorizing new vocab words, reviewing old ones, and listening to Chinese. It has been INTENSE (and socially alienating)! But the rewarding part of learning a foreign language definitely outweighs all the hard work that you have to put into it.

I think learning Chinese is the coolest thing I have ever done. Really. Just the fact that I can listen to something in Chinese, something that just 15 months ago sounded like a bunch of noise, totally foreign, totally incomprehensible - in just 15 months it has transformed into something I (most of the time, lol) can actually understand! How cool is that?! I'll tell you - it is one of the coolest things ever.

So where does Beijing come in? As part of my incentive for this ridiculously long period of studying, studying, studying, I always knew that at the end of this schooling would come the best part about it all - MOVING TO BEIJING! Yes, readers, I am moving to Beijing, China and will live in China for one year. My husband and I are so, so looking forward to this! We LOVE to travel. I've never been to Asia. I can't wait. We want to see every province and many of the border countries.

I also know there will be plenty of challenges.

1. I may be one of the girliest girls you will ever meet
2. I don't like getting dirty
3. I don't like being uncomfortable
4. I'm soooort of a picky eater
5. I can't use chopsticks... something about a lack of coordination... (but I will damn well learn!)
6. I don't really like big crowds (that will be a problem in a country with a population of 1.3 billion people)
7. I don't particularly love public transportation, which is how we will get around China
8. I make everyone in my class use purell
9. And I've spent at least a few hours scouring the internet for sandals that are good for traveling but still fashionable (it seems those two things can't go together, but, I am determined to make it happen)

Trust me, everyone who knows me is watching to see how this will play out! My goal while I am in China is to try (almost) everything at least once; embrace the food, the culture, the language, the people, the history - and with a country with as rich a history as China's and as quickly developing as China is - this is going to be a really amazing journey and I think its a really great time to be IN China experiencing all the changes first hand.

So with our passports and visas ready to go and our plane ticket booked - China, here we come! We will be leaving May 9th for Beijing, with no house waiting for us on the other side of the ocean, alone & unafraid as my hubby would say. :)

This blog will be all about my experience in China, my travels, the food, the people, the culture, as well as the fashion! (Can't leave out fashion!)

So you might be wondering where this amazingly creative & original blog name come from. I think its an interesting perspective as I am pretty sure I am going to stick out in a crowd over there.

Anyway I'll be posting some fashion/beauty related things in the next few days (hey you need to shop before you go!), and some posts about getting ready for a move like this. Stay tuned!

And so this post wasn't a total bore, my cute little JIWAWA I'll have to leave with my mom in the U.S.