Nihao y'all!

Days since communication: 1

So over the weekend we recieved our first email from Nick, and it looks like we can leave the alert at green, for now:

Nihao y'all!

I can't type too much cuz I gotta run get my "Foreign Expert" card picture taken, but I wanted to let you all know I've landed safely in China and everything is going well here. Its really hot and muggy, but everyone has been really cool. The plane ride wasn't so bad and the other [Peace Corps] volunteers are really cool, so that's all good. Oh, and alchohol on flights to China is apparently free, so we scored on that one! =) [ed. note: Good thing! We hear once his blood alcohol content dips below a certain level, Nick goes into shock!] Hope everything's going well ... and I'll be in touch again soon.

Cheers!

Nick

...which should mean that he has a) internet access and b) people to talk to who speak english - and that last one is really a plus, because we here at Traveling the Silk Road are not sure Nick could go two months without someone to argue with, let alone two years.

Anyway, about this blog: Traveling the Silk Road is a temporary place to house communications from Our Fearless Leader until his Web site, nickinchina.com, goes live. (Special thanks to Tom for the webspace and domain name.) You see, kids, we're not really web designers, we just play them on TV and it's going to take a while to work out the kinks over there. (In fact, this whole blog is a lie - we are not even multiple people, but only one, who annoyingly likes to refer to herself in the third person.) But in the meantime, we didn't want to deprive the internerds, and Nick's adoring public, of his adventures in the big wide world. Which is how you ended up here. I'll probably be doing most of the posting, due to Nick's irrational fear of the internet and his rage-filled avoidance of all things named 'blog', but I'll be sure to keep you as up to date as I can.

Alright, that's all for now. Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times and remember to scream really loud on the big hills: it's a long way down.

- Laura