Siniticism

Countdown to departure: 6 days
Countdown to culture shock: 191 days

I'm thinking about when I return to university, even though that's far off. If my time in China goes as planned — "as planned" meaning simply that I am functionally bilingual when I return (though it would be nice to have saved up some money too) — I'm thinking I might push for my school to authorize me to change my Linguistics major to become their first Sinology major. By that point I will surely have the tools I need to get on the ins with the Asian Studies department, and will have proven my devotion to the field at least enough to validate my petition. It may ultimately be more practical for me to be a Linguistics major with a Chinese minor or some such permutation, but it would be nice if my degree were to be in the one field I can actually envision myself devoting my life to at this point in time.