11-10-10+online+chat+notes

Here are the notes that I took last night. Remember these are my understanding of what we talked about. Hopefully this will help. (:

We are flying from Beijing to Chongqing. It is about a 3 hour flight and Hanban is paying for all of it. The luggage is an issue that Ma Yi is checking into for us. International is 2 checked bags at 50 lbs. and domestic flights are 1 checked bag at 44 lbs, so that creates a dilema for those of us who have extra luggage from our flight over.

Ma Yi suggested that we take a gift for the schools that we are visiting. Something that has our school logo on it, for example a hat, t-shirt, pencils, etc. She thought we would only being visiting 2 schools at the most. It sounded to me it would be like 1 gift for the school to show off who had visited their school.

Dress for the trip was discussed a lot. The Hanban dinner should be a "snappy casual" event. She suggested the ladies have a jacket on but it didn't have to be a suit. Just nice for a picture. (:

Ma Yi suggested communicating home with family via email from the hotel. There is no "facebook" available though, so she wanted everyone to be aware of that.

She doesn't know the hotel names yet.

Passports should be back by the end of next week.

Any $ we should need would only be for gifts/souvenirs that we want to purchase. All group meals will be paid for, as well as all travel expenses as long as you are with the group. She suggested not exchanging any $ until we get to China. Travelers checks would be the best route to go and then she will help us get it exchanged once we are in China. Remember everything is covered by Hanban so you shouldn't need too much spending cash, was her message.

Foods in Chonqing are spicey, so be aware of that. If you have a food dislike or allergy let her know and she will let Hanban know so they will keep that in mind when planning our meals.

There is no detailed itinerary for the trip yet. She is waiting for more information from Hanban, so she can get more details to us.

We will all have our own hotel rooms when in China. Except the married couple (sorry can't remember your names).

Any electronics you may need to use in China will need an adapter. She put the information on the type in our packet.

Any questions you may have she wants you to feel free to email or call her. She is very excited about this trip and wants everyone to feel comfortable with everything.

Hopefully this will answer some of the questions you may have. I hope it wasn't too much rambling. Have a great end of your week and weekend!! Darcie Lewis