Safe, Sound, and Exhausted

No, I have not been quarantined. I know that it has been nearly a week with no communication to the masses, but unless by "quarantine," you either mean "sent your computer to your university while you travel" or "has discovered that your blog host as well as many of your favortite sites have been blocked," I am perfectly fine. Health-wise, actually, I would wager that I am better than I was when I left the country - save for some blistered heels and extremely painful and tight calves, thanks to the Great Wall - seeing as how I have walked more in the past few days than I had in the previous month and that I can actually breathe clearly here, allergy-free (go figure) (cross your fingers).

Anyway, let me explain my pronounced absence from the blogging world thus far in my journey: in preparation for my visit, I found that Facebook, YouTube, and various other websites had been blocked by the government, but I just assumed that Blogger had not been. Well, it turns out that I was wrong - so much for freedom of the press, Free Spirits [LINK: http://www.freespiritnetwork.com/]! - so I am going to simply e-mail Billy my entries and have him post them, and he will e-mail me back comments that I receive on them. *By the way - you don't have to be a member of Blogger to comment on these entries! Just try it.* Right; so, I figured that this plan would be easier than trying to find an available host and setting up an entirely new blog, especially after all of the work that I put into this one this summer. For the next week or so, there will be no pictures, as I still will be traveling, and, as I mentioned earlier, upon my arrival in the PRC, I sent my large suitcase as well as my laptop to SuDa to be stored in a safe place until we arrive, naively thinking that we would not have time nor means to access the Internet on this national tour. Wrong again! I have since tried using someone else's computer for a bit at night, but as grateful as I am, once you figure in adapters, chargers, Internet speed, blocked sites, and coordinating time, by the time that I gain access to my Inbox, I am usually too tired or frustrated to even check all of my new e-mails. Hopefully and quite probably, this will all improve once we settle into Suzhou. Until then, expect infrequent communication - sorry!

Alas, we have an early morning tomorrow; I need to do laundry and get some sleep. More on the Great Wall, temple visits, and cities, as well as general thoughts, soon!

P. S. - E-MAIL ME. I obviously have limited access, at least for now, but it is access, nonetheless. That is the easiest and cheapest way in which I can be in touch!

(Note from Billy: This would have been up sooner, but I had a hard time logging into Emily's account. Sorry about that.)