Where Have I Been?

Sorry for the hugely long lack of posting on my part - when in Portugal I was busy with sightseeing, conference, and hanging out with Adam in the evening, and then when I returned to China I have been frantically getting ready for my departure.  I only had 1.5 weeks from returning until I left China for (semi-) good, so I had a lot to do with cleaning, packing, organizing, giving away bigger household items I've bought, and saying goodbye to everyone in Beijing.  

By 'semi' good I mean that I have a crazy flight schedule for returning to the States, involving 4 straight days of transcontinental flying in mid-June!  My scholarship bought my original roundtrip ticket to and from China, and when I decided to stop off in France on the way home to see Max, my boyfriend, for a few weeks, I hoped that they could just change the city of my return ticket.  They were unable to change anything about the ticket however, leaving me with the choice of cancelling my return and buying 2 one-way tickets (Beijing-Paris, and Paris-US) or keeping the return and buying a roundtrip to Paris from China.  The latter option ended up being vastly cheaper, but it means that when I leave France on June 14th, I will travel to China, arrive on the morning of the 15th, and then have only 18 hours in Beijing before leaving for Chicago on the morning of the 16th.  Crazy!  So I will actually return to Beijing one last time, but only for a brief period and I will not have time to see anyone or do anything except re-pack my bags. 

Despite the inconvenience of this arrangement, it has its good sides as well; I did not have to pay extra luggage fees to take 2 checked bags to France, not to mention having to get around on planes/trains with too much stuff.  Plus I can still use my apartment in Beijing to store my stuff and sleep on the last night since my lease doesn't expire until June 20th.  I am currently on the plane from Beijing to Paris, on my way to Grenoble to see Max and other people that I knew when I lived in France.  I hope to post several consecutive blog posts as a catch-up for the past few weeks.