Where has Edna been, and where is Edna going?

That's right, I graduated. The last month has been a weird mix of goodbyes and emotions and silly things like that as I left Etown (and soon, home) for good. I also hosted two visiting friends from Australia, who I'd met in Dalian and had come all the way to Central Pennsylvania to see me graduate/turn 21. First lesson of adulthood: hosting people is exhausting.

Oh, and I turned 21! On the same day as graduation, no less. I have to give a shout-out here, for my family threw me an absolutely incredible graduation/birthday party.

So anyway, the eternal graduation question: What now? Well it certainly isn't more education- after the nightmare that was my thesis, I have no soul left and you couldn't pay me enough to go to grad school.

So where am I going? Back to China is the logical (and correct) answer, but surprisingly, I won't be staying long.

I mean, I'm 21 and I've already spent a year and half of the last four in China, not to mention all the summers I went to Shanghai. If I go back now, I can see myself easily falling back into the China Bubble, oh that dreaded Bubble, and I want to go out and really challenge myself this time. I mean, there's so much of the world to see! So I'm realizing my wish to move abroad again and starting a slow-travel RTW (round the world) trip, beginning with San Francisco in two days. I'll spend a week there, then head back to Shanghai for about five weeks of pure family/friends time, then I'm ....moving to Singapore!

That's all I've got planned so far, I haven't even a job lined up yet- just a three-week volunteer gig with the Youth Olympic Games that will take me to the end of August. I'm tentatively thinking Australia or the Philippines by Christmas, but I mean with these things... who knows? The last thing I want to do is plan too far ahead.

And if I ever need a backup plan...Shanghai's not going anywhere.

Notice something different?

I'm baaaack!

As most who follow my Twitter know, I've actually been back in the land of the cheese and home of the Braves for about a week and a half now. While I have a post in the works about my summer in Shanghai, I thought I'd first highlight some changes I've made to this blog.

Before:

After: (Well, what you're reading is obviously the after. But for visual comparison's sake:)

So obviously there's been a title change, tagline change, photo and profile change. The real overhaul here is going to be in content.

Posted photos will come from both the year in Dalian and the three+ months in Shanghai. But more importantly, I'm going to start posting about my daily life now as well. China-bubble-related material that is, like insane bouts of reverse culture shock; plus the occasional senior year freakouts musings. I mean, it's inevitable- it is senior year.