Last day in America for three months

I was hoping to get a scholarship that would let me stay in Beijing through the fall semester. Unfortunately, I found out yesterday that I didn’t get it. So I will only be in China until August 8th. This isn’t too bad, but I am a bit upset. Instead of getting to stay in China, I’ll instead be taking classes at UF again including a Special Topics in Number Theory course that focuses on elliptic curve cryptography. Its sure to be time consuming and incredibly interesting.

I spent all day today seeing my family and a couple friends. I went fishing with my father out in the Atlantic this morning, despite my moral objections to the practice (if you don’t know me, I’m a vegetarian). I didn’t catch any fish, so it wasn’t too bad for me. I did, however, get a sunburn on my feet. When I put on the sunblock my shoes were on, and when I took them off later in the day I forgot to put some on. Oh well. This might work to my advantage for my upcoming 13.5 hour flight to Beijing. I’ll be taking some benadryl which should not only relieve the itching, but also help me sleep. Chris and Shannon (two good friends of mine) came by and we went to the beach down by the nuclear power plant here in Stuart, FL. A storm was brewing so the sea was pretty rough but fun.

My sister, Kim, came into town to see me off which I appreciated. One of my brothers also stopped by. We all had Anna’s pizza which is arguably the best pizza in the whole damn state. I requested it as my last meal in America.

I leave for the airport in under 4 hours. I am staying up all night to aid in my struggle to actually sleep through the flight. I think I’ll go finish packing and get some last minute studying done.