Time to go to Yunnan!

The weeks have melted into days, the days into hours, and by tomorrow morning, into minutes. The spring trip seemed like a far-off dream when we first started to talk about it...last October? But our help from Chicago has arrived, our bags are packed, our itineraries printed, our tour guides hired, and our tickets purchased. There's no turning back.

Rachel has been getting noticeably more shrewd lately - we talked with the tour guide owner today, and she berated him with questions regarding the charges on our bill. She got him to knock another 10 kuai off per person, which actually saved us quite a bit. But less necessary was her haggling with the lady at the tea stand over a half-kuai difference on the price of her drink. I'll blame her take-no-prisoner attitude on a raging cold that set in today. She sounds and looks pretty bad right now. Some sleep would help...

It is hard to know what to expect with this trip. I am excited about the location and the activities, but being in charge always brings up unexpected difficulties and complications. It would be nice to be able to travel and just enjoy the scenery, but we have responsibilities to attend to. Unfortunately, my energy level is quite low right now...yet I feel that this trip will require me to be much more extroverted than I would normally care to be. Will it wipe me out for the rest of the year?

-alan