Welcome to Our Around the World Blog!

When I tell people that I’m going to China, I get a wide range of reactions. Some people think it sounds exciting – others just think it sounds scary. If the person I’m talking has gone to China before or knows someone who has gone, the person will fill me in on some details that trip. Hearing their stories just makes me want to go even more. I can’t believe that this is actually going to happen! For so long China was something that might happen, then it was something far away, and now it is actually happening. I can’t believe it. We leave on Friday and I am so excited. I’m mostly done packing and now am ready for takeoff. My crazy adventure is about to begin.

I figure that I should take a quick minute to explain this blog and my family’s trip. About a year ago, my dad was told that some people in China wanted him to do a professorship. After much consideration, he applied for the position and got it. It required him to work in China for three months, so he has already been in China for over a month. My mom, three younger siblings, and I, leave to join him in China on Friday. We, however, have a couple day layover in Istanbul, Turkey first. Then, we fly to Seoul, South Korea, where we meet up with my dad. After a couple days in South Korea, we all fly to Dalian, China. We will spend two weeks there doing smaller trips on some days. Then, we will spend two weeks touring all around China. After that, we leave China, but the way the planes worked, we had to have an overnight in Hawaii. Finally we will spend a week in California and Oregon, camping at Lassen Volcanic, Redwood, and Crater Lake National Park with some of our cousins before flying back to our house. The trip will take around seven and a half weeks and will have us actually fly around the entire world. The goal is to try to post a blog every day, so stay tuned! And we’ll include lots of photos too.

Now you may have noticed that I said that I have three younger siblings. Yup, all four of us are going around the world. We will take turns posting the blogs. I’m Rachel. I’m fifteen years old and going into my sophomore year of high school. I enjoy doing competitive Irish Dance, playing the piano, and playing the trombone in my school’s band. I can’t wait for everything to start and I love the idea of an adventure. My brother Taylor is the next oldest. He’s thirteen, going into eighth grade and only ever wears sports jerseys from various countries. He plays soccer, piano, and trumpet. Taylor wasn’t originally as excited to go to China because he thought the food would be gross, but now he is pumped after all. He is excited to be able to see North Korea from the city along the border that we’re visiting. (No, we aren’t actually going into North Korea.) Sarah Ann, who is a sassy ten-year-old and going into fifth grade, can be even crazier and more hyper than me sometimes (which is saying a lot). She does Irish Dance like me, and plays the piano and violin. She had made a valiant attempt to learn Mandarin and can successfully say a couple sentences. I am quite impressed. Christian is the youngest of us and is only five and starts kindergarten next year. He has a crazy amount of energy, loves rescue-bots, plays on a little soccer team, and will do anything to make someone laugh. He may be a bit of a wild card on this trip because he’s younger and has so much energy.

One last note. Our blog is blocked in China. This means that instead posting the posts ourselves while we are there, we will be writing our posts and then sending them to our Grandpa to post.

Please stay tuned with all four of us crazy kids as we attempt to survive a trip around the world. And leave us lots of comments! It all starts Friday!