I'm here at my friend Barb's house in Chicago, having taken the train in yesterday. Today we had lunch with my friend Keith (from Louisiana. Well, actually from LA and Chicago both . . . he and his partner split their time between those places, and in actuality spend most of their time at O'Hare, from the sounds of it). Then we went on an architecture walking tour, which was wonderful. (The Chicago Architecture Foundation offers several, and I want to do them all.)

We missed the architecture tour that I really wanted to take (Downtown Deco) and took a different one instead (Historic Skyscrapers - a repeat of the tour we took in high school, I think; at any rate, it included all my faves, like the Marquette Building, the Monadnack, and the Rookery). We missed the first tour because when it began, I was in the Chinese Frickin' Consulate, applying for visas. As applying for visas is something you do if you're going to travel, it is really dawning on me - really becoming, well, real - that in 18 days (but who's counting?) I am getting on a plane and going to China Frickin' China.

Yes. China. THAT China.

Never in my life have I entertained the notion of going to China.

Never in my life did I ever dream that a free month in China would land in my lap. (I wanted to celebrate my 50th summer by riding my bike down the Danube - sort of a pale adventure by comparison . . . )

(ASIDE: One of the things that bothers me about this situation is that I can't tell my mother I'm going. She would be so appreciative . . . I can just hear her say, "Oh, Marce, CHINA!" She would be totally happy for me.)

I am so scandalously underprepared.

And the trip is just galloping up at breakneck speed. At this point, I will leave knowing no more Mandarin than I do now (and I know as much now as I ever did - NONE). And my cultural ignorance - vast.

Worse, my curriculum is not really prepared . . . and next Wednesday Emil and I are leaving on ANOTHER vacation. (This summer is going to be a hard act to repeat!)

I suppose I'll spend Saturday at the MSU library, trying to find "Learn Mandarin While You Sleep" books and such like that. I alternate between thinking I ought not to bother, since it'll take my aged brain longer than I've got to learn anything, anyway; and thinking that if I really make an effort I could learn something. I also have books on culture that I haven't begun to read (including one given me by my friend Margaret from Toronto a month - that seems like a year - ago).

Ah, well, I'm sure I'll have learned plenty about China by the time I return. Possibly my time would be better spent preparing my curriculum.

In the meantime, I'll try not to freak out too badly (although freaking out is half the fun, I must admit).

More soon.