China bound!

Great news! 

I've recently received official final acceptance for a fellowship in China. The East Asia Pacific Science Institute sponsors American scientists to work in multiple east Asian countries over the summer. I will be leaving to go to China in mid-June and plan to stay for a few months to do my proposed research - and to travel as much as possible in China of course!

I still have much left to do before I leave: visas, logistic arrangements, lodging and scientific equipment etc. I'm super-excited for this trip and can't wait to finish my thesis work here so I can finally push on to the next step. 

It's quite possible that my work in China this summer will contribute to my PhD work but for now, I'm thankful for the opportunity and plan to be as adventurous, as opposed to studious, as possible while in China.

Some images courtesy of google maps. It's hard to look places up and I don't think you can read the names very well but - I'll be staying in Chuzhou, which is an hour from Nanjing and a few hours from Shanghai. China is huge, while my arrival is in Beijing I am pretty sure I'll have to fly to Nanjing or Shanghai to take a train to my final workplace, Chuzhou.

The two little green dots are where I'll be living for the majority of the time.

A little closer. Shanghai is the big city on the far right, the peninsula. "A" is Nanjing and "B" is Chuzhou.

A close-up of Chuzhou (left, "B") and Nanjing (right, "A"). 

In addition to prepping the trip logistics I also purchased some language software, The Rosetta Stone - for those of you interested, and can now say "that man eats a sandwhich" and "that horse is running". I'm sure it will come in very handy when I'm there ;)

I plan to keep updating this blog while I'm there but who knows how much unfettered internet access I will have.