I start my departure of China tomorrow.
Success and failure share the same lessons, just the failures are the only things we remember. Murphy can @#$%, well if you are not familiar with Murphy's law then you probably will not understand.
Was my trip a failure? No, by no means, I have had a wonderful trip, being able to speak tourist Mandarin and then some, having a decent translator (btw stop buying these on E-Bay got the newest one for less than $200 in China)
Besta. Be careful and bring a laptop in case the Dictionary corrupts. (first hand lesson here gentlemen) Study your Chinese well, you will need it (if you refuse to learn Chinese, good luck you will need some)
Simple fact: 160 or so letters to determine now, my girl and I were not designed for each other. She wants to see me off tomorrow, so this should go well..... I do not feel ill of her, she underestimated the difficulties.
There are many things I could say I would have done differently, there are many ways things could have gone, but things happen for a reason, and its to understand the question that is the hard part. ^_^
I am completely happy, nothing could really be better, not leaving with my lady on my arm, but we cannot have everything we want in life can we? I have made more friends in the last couple of weeks, than can possibly last a life time. This country is not easy to get around, so do not kid yourself, learn, observe, respect and for god sakes the 24 hour rule ^_^.
Buy a translator and a Chinese cell phone as soon as your little foreign legs hit the ground, be in touch with your translator, have mobile QQ installed on the phone in case of difficulty. Eat until you explode, treat your lady with the respect she deserves, at least 10 times a day remind her she is beautiful, learn the words, learn her name, learn her pet name. And NO long trips away from civilization (I think the paramount of my failure was not putting my foot down a little on our overzealous trip).
Agency P608 is legit, 100% top notch people, damn hard to find initially in Nanning but very good people. Yes, sometimes words are translated wrong, I have seen the systems they use, but translate Chinese once for yourself and see sometimes there are at least a dozen words in English for one word in Chinese. Sometimes things get fluffy read through the madness of 2 languages, not direct english connotation. When in doubt go to mdbg.net and see the difference in translation. I was shown some very nifty software and I am currently trying to find useful versions.
I am planning the path less traveled, the ladies that were chosen for me to meet and I chose to meet now are for a reason. Will any of them work out? I hope, but this does not change a thing, I have had a wonderful trip. Currently awaiting responses from family members ^_^
In closing:
Boys stop screwing around and get your lazy AmeAusCanEurIriScandinavian (alphabetical order no favoritism here sorry if I missed someone) butts to China. Work overtime, max your credit cards, go see your ladies. Because your trip cannot go any worse than mine LOL! And I enjoyed it, would do it again, and am definitely coming back soon!
Stop all the griping its giving me a headache.
My myspace pictures ^_^ not all of them mind you just some at the moment.
Pictures