Off to a rough start

Just two more days and I'll be getting myself on an 18-hour flight to Beijing.
Kind of funny that I've been thinking about this trip for over a year and in the blink of an eye I'm packing up my stuff to leave.
I was going to wait to leave before I started writing but I could wait to chronicle my feelings (scrubs quote)
Basically I'm just doing this to let those people out there who are in my position and want to go to BLCU know what they're expecting. I'm glad that the people that have gone before me were gracious enough to do the same so now I'm not absolutely petrified in leaving the comfort of washing machines, air conditioning/heating, and clear blue skies for whatever I should be looking forward to in China-land. For those who don't know, BLCU stands for Beijing Language and Culture University (Beijing yuyan da xue)

Monday morning I'll be getting on a plane at around 7am and will be arriving to Beijing Tuesday at 2pm (Monday 1am home time).
I love to travel and the thought of being able to just sit on a plane for hours on end is fun to me, probably torturous to everyone else. I definitely have to bring my Chinese book from class to review some stuff just so when I get off the plane, I won't be scrambling for words even though I probably won't be ordering hot and spicy soup or debating the pros and cons of recyclable materials at the airport.

Ok well I applied back in December, about a week before Christmas. The application fee is $75 US to the school, but I wanted to get everything done asap, so I went through US Bank and they have a wire transfer fee of $50, so total comes to $125. My advice, find somewhere cheaper or if you know someone there in Beijing, have them pay the fee and just pay them back when you get there.
From what I've heard, BLCU accepts everybody so don't be nervous about not getting in, unless you're not planning on giving them money ^_-
I got an answer from the school 3 weeks later, which was quick, and I had applied to the Spring intensive 30hrs/wk program which went from February to July.
About a week later, I got accepted to a job that I applied for this summer which starts in June, So I had to change plans and do their shorter program still 30hrs/wk but it goes from late March to the middle of June.
The change worked out pretty well but when I let the school know after I applied to their longer term, they wanted me to re-apply and pay the fee again...If you're not 100% sure of what program you're going to apply to, figure it out! Otherwise you'll end up losing out on another $125 *cry*

Doing the shorter program actually works out for me because I can work an extra month and I'll be saving a month's worth of food and living over there.
The Feb-July program costs about $2,700 where the Mar-June program costs $1,200. Of course being able to stay in Beijing for 5 months instead of 3 would be awesome, but I just can't make it there for that long.
At this point, I honestly don't know anything about living expenses, just cuz the resources on the BLCU site are so vague, but I know that I want to live with a roomie and with my own bathroom and hopefully my own bed...
So far plane tickets were $1,100 which was nice, visa was $165 (it took 2 weeks to get my visa sent to Chicago and back), and I had to put a down payment on dorms which was $370.
So with everything this whole trip will be boiled down to around $6,000, which is totally awesome because school tuition costs about that much.

As of right now, weather in Beijing is 60's and sunny whereas here at home its 30's and 2-3 inches of snow fell last night haha
Packing is taking longer than I thought it would probably because I'm still writing this blog post but it'll have to get done eventually I guess because I don't know any normal people who pack for a trip more than 10 hours before their departure.