Greetings from China!

Hi everyone, this is Matt, Alison's boyfriend. She can't access Blogger for whatever reason and has tasked me to be her proxy Blogger poster person. Woo... Anyways, here she is!

Getting to China
I learned my lesson about international layovers: there can never be too much time before your flight. I missed my flight out of New York JFK airport because of a bad storm and ended up staying one more night in America than expected.
I was pretty stressed all week leading up to the flight, having to say goodbye to family and loved ones and packing up my apartment while simultaneously packing to leave for a year proved to be a tremendous task. Missing my flight was pretty much the last straw for me and I’m just glad that whole fiasco is over now.
The Wise Sage
The plus side of my being trapped on a commuter plane from Washington DC to New York City for nearly two hours was meeting this wonderful woman who had been all around the world and is currently in Afghanistan for work. I don’t really know her name but she works for a consulting company and currently assists the British equivalent of USAID in Afghanistan and was connecting through Delhi to get to Khabul.
Basically she had been all around the world, from South and Central America, to Asia, Africa, and Central Europe. She is probably in her mid to late 30’s, unmarried, and just a very wise traveler. She offered me some advice that I have definitely taken note of:
Expat Rule #1: The 6-8 Week Rule
Basically, every six to eight weeks a person living abroad should do something that is more familiar to them from home just to break the trend and “remind yourself of who you are.” This can be anything from going to a spa, checking into a hotel, or taking a small trip out of the city you are located in. Basically a change of scenery is needed to preserve mental health.
Tampon Theory of Development
When countries develop, you can always tell what stage they are in by looking in the women’s’ hygiene aisle. For example, many developing countries only have pads, or even worse, wads of cotton. Not only is this a very primitive way of handling menstrual cycles, but it also reflects upon the buying power and average income of women. Basically, these women can’t afford anything more sophisticated.
Tampons are very rarely found in developing countries because they are not only expensive, but they also carry many social stigmas about virginity and ability to be married off. The more women’s’ rights and decreased myths about virginity, the more tampons are available.
That’s my first blog post. Hopefully it gives you something to think about and I assure you that the next will be more about China and my daily musings. I just wanted to share what I learned on the plane ride over.

My Chinese word of the day: 军人  jun1ren2 (soldier) {Great word! Sadly my computer does not have Chinese character enabled and I cant access the necessary files}