The Day Before

Sometimes you have too many details to attend to and the little, yet important ones, are overlooked. Flight? Check. Passport and visa? Check. Materials? Check. Clothes? Check. ATM card? Hmm. Last night after dinner with friends, I reached into my pocket for my ATM card only to find money, license, and lint. Oh, jeez! Panic sort of sets in and then you realize as the food coma clears and the details of the earlier part of the evening are recalled. Put ATM card in machine. Told machine to give me money. Took money out. Walked away. Yes, truly. I figured the ATM ate the card and hopefully before any one else took notice, but when I checked with the bank today, someone actually withdrew a hundred dollars. I suppose I am lucky that it wasn't more money, as there is probably nothing I can do to recover it. The bank did say I might be able to file a claim, but I am hardly hopeful for that. It feels pretty creepy knowing that someone actually does have my card. And to that person: you suck. Not enough integrity to take the card out, look for the owner and then respectfully turn it in or discard it. Nope. They suck.

So you get traveller's checks, cancel everything, and hope you don't need any more money or can use a credit card. Delightful, really. If the worst thing that happens is being robbed a hundred bucks and losing an ATM card between now and August, then things are pretty good. I always do those mental checks because I am quite notorious when it comes to misplacing and forgetting things. My students are very good at finding scissors or tape buried under 2 feet of papers while I sit there racking my brain "Has anyone seen my scissors?" Aye, maestra. Yo se donde estan. "Yes, of course, those little memories have the ability to imprint about 200 times as much as my aging, feeble brain does." That must be it.

We received our final itinerary this morning and its a little hard to believe that I am actually going. Activities will include a boat ride in Hangzhou, a tea plantation visit, shopping in the silk market, visiting the Great Wall, the Terra-Cota Soldiers and Dr. Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum. So keep checking in because I hope to be able to continue to post pictures and reflections of my trip.

Attitude? Check.