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I've been watching all these documentaries and movies that cover the globe in the past week or so--March of the Penguins (Antarctica), the Bond marathon on Spike TV (he's a jet-setter, and so dapper),Whale Rider (New Zealand), The Endless Summer (anywhere with a beach, mostly Africa, Indonesia, Cali), and The Incredibles (beaches, crazy metropolis, futuristic jets)~~not to mention the books that are whisking me away from the Midwest--and so the wanderlust it has inspired has me on a plane in ten days to the Far East.

I am going to Beijing and Shanghai for 10 days.

Seriously.

It's for a work conference and then some work-related stuff, but still! Travelling on the corporate dime! Woo to the hoo! Unfortunately, unlike other trips I've taken, I won't be trading one miserable climate for an optimal one. Instead, I'm leaving the muggy and stifling heat of Chicago and going to the muggy and stifling heat of Shanghai. I've realized that I could spend 3 days in Beijing never going outside, however, so that might work to my advantage. (Everything's self-contained in a mammoth conference 'hotel' which resembles the exterior of the UN.)

But me! China!

It has yet to sink in, frankly. Perhaps next week, while I contemplate packing for 10 days in a business-dress manner, it'll hit and then I'll frantically search for all the things I've had 2 months to find/purchase. As I do laundry and maniacally clean the house because I hate coming home to squalor, or the hint of it.