Overview of Trip

I'd like to give you guys an overview of the trip that I'll be on, but first I'd like to give special thanks to Luke and Amy for posting such supportive comments yesterday (hmm... it's rather difficult to be sarcastic while typing).

So I will be in a small village called Gao Xiang which is in the province of Zhe Jiang on the coast of China. We are about an hour outside of a fairly sizable city called Hangzhou, and also a few hours south of Shanghai.


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This is where my friend Eric's father grew up. He has decided to commission the building of a park there, as a way to give back to the community he was part of. Eric and several of his friends (myself included) will be overseeing the operation, all the way from design through material purchase and construction to completion. We will also be teaching English and possibly remodeling some classrooms. I'm leaving this Friday (the 17th), and won't be returning until August 19th.

This is a very exciting opportunity for me, as it is a chance to be creative and get some experience contributing to the management of a project, and it is a good way for me to improve my Chinese. I am very grateful to Eric for allowing me this opportunity.