Late Starts, Missed Flights, and the Great Firewall of China

               Ah yes, the first post on a new travel blog. Usually fresh, exciting, and setting up a grand adventure yet to come, the first post is a groundbreaking event. However, this is not such a traditional post. This study abroad story begins instead with a student’s close friend and worst enemy: procrastination. I believed that I would be leaving for China on Thursday, May 21^st, so I planned to set up a VPN (a necessity in China, but more on that later) and this blog, a day or two before (see: procrastination). Alas, as often befalls procrastinators, one bump in the road derailed all my plans. Well, “bump” may not be the correct comparison, try “cliff.” See, I fell prey to every world traveler’s worst nightmare; I missed my flight.

               Now, you may thinking, ‘That’s awful! Of course, there must be an entirely plausible reason for such a tragedy!’ And I wish you were right! However, that is not the case. Remember how earlier I mentioned that I thought I would be leaving on Thursday, May 21^st? Well, it turns out that my flight was actually on Wednesday, the day before. You can probably see the problem. The situation played as you would expect. I turned off my phone Tuesday night, had a restful night, and then turned on my phone in the morning to find out that I had missed my 6am flight! What a crazy day! As I am currently in China, it can be puzzled out that I was able to resolve the situation (quite expensively, of course), and catch a flight a few days later. I arrived at Shaanxi Normal University in Xi’an with, thankfully, only a few missed events. After arriving, it was time to create this blog!

               Not so fast. I discovered quickly that China was not overly fond of Blogger, as it is run by Google, whom they disapprove of. Censorship in China is widespread and varied, across many sites and companies, and is often referred to as the Great Firewall of China. Now, I did have a plan to circumvent this wall, by using a VPN I had set up while in the US. However, missing my flight just so happened to put that plan into disarray. In order to create this blog, I needed a VPN. In order to get a VPN, I needed to not be in China…or use a different VPN. So, to that effect, I have spent the last two days attempting to get a VPN, without a VPN, with no luck. Today, I was incredibly worried I wouldn't be able to create this blog, until I was talking with a friend, who said she had a way to help me! She let me use her VPN to get online long enough to find a good VPN and purchase it, which was a huge relief. So, with my feet firmly on Chinese ground, classes started, and blog created, I am excited to spend the next four weeks broadening my horizons and imbibing the local culture!