China!

Wow!  I'm super excited and a little nervous; I just booked a 2 week vacation to China.  (It seemed a lot easier to post the details here, rather than trying to do it on facebook.)  I have to admit that when thinking about places in the world to travel, China was never at the top of my list, so when my friend Leslie threw out the idea I was a bit hesitant.  But... there was a great deal on Groupon and ya'll know how much I love a deal!  Hahaha, seriously though, once I started looking through the information and all the gorgeous photos, I figured why not? 

There are so many amazing sites to see.  The first 9 days we'll be in Shanghai and Beijing with a guided tour group.  I know the whole tour group thing is a little cheesy, but it also seems pretty damn convenient.  I've been to a handful of countries, but I'm certainly not an experienced world traveller so it scares me a little.  At least in Europe I can make a lot of educated guesses about what a sign says either based on English or what I remember from high school Spanish classes, but that doesn't work in Asia so having a guide should make it more approachable.  Once the group trip is over, Leslie and I will venture out on our own for a few days in Hong Kong.  As long as we're making the flight over, we might as well make the most of it.

Since this was a Groupon trip, we're actually only half-way booked right now.  My credit card has been charged so I'm pretty much committed to going, but we still have to figure out some minor details like... when we're going?!?  I think it'll be the end of April or beginning of May, but I should know for certain in a few weeks.  I had been tentatively planning a visit back to Richmond around that time, so unfortunately that will have to be delayed a bit :(

Thankfully, I've got plenty of time to plan (and I'll probably end up making a work trip to the Netherlands in the mean time) so if anyone has been to China and has any advice, let me know.