Introduction

   As some of you know, and some of you may not, I am leaving my dear North America in order to spend a year in China teaching English. I've been advised by many people to write a blog about my experience, and so here it is. Since I love to talk about myself, this shouldn't be too hard. I am however new to this, and have never kept a diary, so I anticipate the style, pace, and substance of this blog to evolve as I get more comfortable with this whole idea. Of course it is entirely possible that the Great Firewall of China will stymie my efforts to talk about myself, in which case you guys are all out of luck. But I think that by using proxies I should be able to continue this thing. 
   You guys probably have a couple of questions (or at least I hope you do) concerning my trip. Why am I doing this? Well it's definitely not for the money. I won't tell you what I'm making, but I can assure you that I will not have any savings at the end of this year. My motivation stems I think from the fact that I have no idea what I want to do with my life. Last year I was convinced I wanted to go to Law School, then I wanted to go straight to my MBA, then I wanted to work in the banking industry like seemingly everybody else with an Economics degree. I came to the realization that I am as indecisive as a child, and in order to decide the direction of my adult life, I first needed to become an adult. And the best way to grow up, to find out who you really are, is to leave your comfort zone completely and challenge yourself to the limit. It is for that reason that I decided to leave my culture, my family, and my friends. I am nervous and scared, but in one year my culture, friends, and family will all still be there, and hopefully I will return to them as an adult. 
   This post is very long winded, and I apologize for that, but this being the introduction, there were a lot of bases to cover. Don't worry, not every post will be an essay. Please leave comments, even if you do so only to pretend to have read my blog. My ego can never be too inflated.  I like quotes, so I will leave you with one by Plato: "For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories." (from The Phaedrus)