Guess Who's Going to Tokyo?
 

Correct. It's only for one night but I'm so excited. I'm actually stopping over for a night whilst on route to Qingdao, which is where I'll be living for a year.

Come to speak of it, I'm equally excited about Qingdao. Can you say "Largest exporter of beer in China"? What's that? Beer museum to boot. Along with that there are a huge number of international clubs... and if that doesn't float your boat how about this: Laoshan, a famous Taoist mountain. Without fail I'll be posting an ungodly number of photographs for your viewing pleasure over the coming year.

http://www.thatsqingdao.com/images/qingdao/qingdao.jpg

Sorry, ranting. I'm just so excited :D

That's awesome, Glenn! Congratulations!

Man that's adventurous!

Shi-i-i-it, I envy you. :D

When are you going?

[By which I don't mean "Get out of here, like, now!"...]

Good question. I'm leaving on Tuesday, 5 days away!

Is it Joales? OMG, I'm so excited for Joales!

Excuse me?

* I'm going to Tokyo with Bill Murray

Leave him at home. He´s so boring.

Woww! That sounds so great! Especially the Qingdao part.

Have lots of fun! Behave yourself!

I'm disappointed that I can't film the event. My father won't lend me his video camera. I guess that's understandable though, considering it's a year long stint. I'm actually not traveling by myself. Originally I was, but a friend of mine decided he wanted to get away from Brisbane too. I can't argue with that; the only thing better than traveling is traveling with a friend.

I'm about to leave for the airport. IT BEGINS!

Watch out for the communists!

Hi, from Qingdao.

How is Qingdao? Is it all you expected?

Better than I expected. I love it. Sorry I couldn't send a longer post.

Cool. Don't forget to take lots of pics, please. :)

How's the teaching gig?

I expect a fullblown Glenn Epic videoreport :D

glen, are u working that teacher thing there? enjoy your stay over there :)

Yep, teaching. Though, I can't say that I teach very often. 20 hours a week is considered full-time over here. I don't even work that much. I've been partying pretty hard. In a dinner type situation it's rude not to drink a ridiculous amount of alcohol. As for culture shock and home-sickness - I've only been gone for 3 weeks but I haven't started to miss Brisbane yet. I just moved into an appartment last week with one of my friends. Actually, the whole experience has been excellent. There is a large quantity of foreigners over here. All of which know each other. It's great. I'm going to save up a bit of cash and purchase a notebook. When that happens expect me to become a full time forum poster again.

:frown: I miss you already, Epsie..........and I haven't even met you yet. :P

Yeah, you get yer arse on saving up for that notebook and get back in here! Glad you're having fun.

Japan lucky you :) It's one of my most favorite countries, and I wish I can go there for a year as well.

That sounds like great working conditions. I teach (though on sick leave right now) as well and I do a minimun of 45 hours/week.

I miss you guys too. Never fear... a laptop is in the woodwork. Shouldn't take too long to save up for one.

As for the comment about never meeting me... Don't worry about that, you will. It's inevitable :)

Actually, I only stayed for one night in Tokyo. As it turned out, we arrived at the Narita airport (the Tokyo interaction airport. Approx. 1 hour away from Tokyo City) somewhere around evening time. Granted that the train takes one hour to get to the city coupled with the fact that the trains stopped running at 12 we were faced with 2 choices. 1. Stay in Tokyo city till 6 A.M the following morning and catch the first train back whilst praying not to miss our 7-something flight to China, or 2. Stay in our free accomodation at the Narita airport hotel. Wisely, We opted for the later. It turned out great. We purchased some Suntory Time Wiskey and patrolled Narita City (For a refreshing time drink Suntory Time - Lost in Translation referrence. The second I saw it I had to have it).

Anyway, to the point, the city that I'm staying in is called Qingdao. It's China's most famous costal city, also one of the most popular tourist destinations.

Woah! 45 hours a week. That's intense! And that's actually real teaching. As an ESL teaching in China all I really do is try maintain a state of order and read instructions for a book, along with doing a little bit of explaining here and there.

The 45 hours/week includes staff meetings, lesson planning (expr?) and PTA meetings.
Your job sounds absolutely great! Surely an experience for life.