T-minus 1 day and counting...

Hello, everyone!

So this here is my first blog post of the first blog I've ever had in my life.  The plan is to keep this up to date with everything I'm up to as I travel around Asia this summer.  I'll be checking out the architecture in a number of Asian countries for the first month.  Then, for the next two months, I'll be based in Kuala Lumpur working with Malaysian architecture students to design a school for a site in rural Malaysia.  Anyhow, if I do a good job with this blog, it will be fun to look back on, it will help me remember everything I did, and it will help everyone at home keep track of what I'm up to.  No promises about frequent updates though...I've never done this before so we'll see if I actually get into it.

Anyway, it's been a whirlwind getting ready for this trip.  I've been so stressed with finals and projects the past few weeks that I've barely had time to stop and realize that I'm leaving so soon.  Yesterday, I went home from LA and moved all my stuff out of the apartment.  I unpacked, ran lots of last-minute errands, repacked for the trip, and today I'm back in LA again.  Tomorrow is commencement and a lot of my friends are graduating, so I can't miss it even though I'll be leaving LAX later that night.

Our first stop on the trip is Osaka, Japan.  We'll be leaving from LAX at 1:40 AM and connecting through Hong Kong en route to Japan.  It's around 14 hours to Hong Kong and another 5 to Osaka.  14 hours is definitely the longest I'll have ever been on a plane so we'll see how it goes.  The plan is to watch lots of movies and maybe sleep a little here and there.  Worth noting for a plane nerd like me is that the flight from Hong Kong to Osaka will be my first time on a 747, or anything with 4 engines or 2 decks for that matter!  Also worth noting is that we'll be flying on Cathay Pacific, which is supposed to be really nice!

Okay, that's it for now.  I'll leave you with the basic itinerary for our program:

May 15 ---> Leave LAX
May 16-May 30 ---> Japan
May 30-June 7 ---> China
June 7-June 13 ---> Vietnam
June 13-June 16 ---> Cambodia
June 16-August 12 ---> Malaysia
August 12 ---> Arrive LAX

Also trying to plan weekend trips to Singapore and Bangkok, both of which are really close to Malaysia, and maybe a trip back to Shanghai to visit the World Expo!