The last days before the four month adventure

Only a few days are left for me in the Netherlands before my plane flies to Hong Kong on thursdayevening. Many sweet people are asking how things are getting along and I'd love to keep everyone updated personally, but that's just not very doable while wanting to explore a new country and doing research. Therefor, I'm starting this blog to keep everyone posted and tell some stories every now and then. If you want off or on the mailing list, just let me know.

So, after some weeks of preparing and saying goodbye to friends, I left Groningen today. Time has been going really fast, but I think the most important preparations are made. I have a plane ticket, a place to work, a place to make my home and motivation to start this adventure. Besides going abroad for some very interesting research (to me it is!), it will be only the second time I'll be going outside of Europe and the first time was boardering Spain. Asia will be very different, but it's hard to get a grip on how different exactly. Some people say that where I'll go, people will want to take pictures of me just for being tall and blonde, they'll want to touch my skin because it looks strange, that there are no meat leftovers and that the people on the streets might not be able to understand English. Whatever it is that I will find, curious me is looking forward to it!

But first I'm going to celebrate Christmas with my family...

Karin