T-minus 18 days and counting!

I can't tell you how excited we are for your arrival in Shanghai. The last weeks and months have been a whirlwind of activity at the Jia; renovations are almost complete, and within the next week and a half, the furniture will be delivered, which will all but complete the preparations that we've been busy making to ready your 'home away from home.' Of course, there are approximately a 1.2 gazillion (rounded up to the nearest gazillion) other details that we're trying to keep on schedule that are non-facility related, but I must say, the renovations, which you will see in full-revelation once you arrive, have made an already great facility all the more suited to our needs. Bathrooms have been added, halls moved, lights, curtains, carpeting, tiling - it's incredible to see it all finally take shape, and it heightens the excitement to be able to share it with you very soon. In particular, some major changes to the garden area turned out wonderfully; no more pictures to share for want of spoiling anything, but I hope you'll be as pleased as we are. As a caveat to all this, which I feel obligated to remind you - no place is perfect, especially for such a unique living-studying-administrating-recreating combination of needs; there will certainly be things we'll need to tweak and adjust once we've had some time to break in the house.

Many other big developments have taken place, including the hiring of our program assistant. We had over 714 applications submitted, and feel very confident that the new addition to our team will be a blessing to the program. I'm going to do a separate post shortly to introduce our team to you, but it is certainly a major development, and one that will be a daily part of your Shanghai experience!

I hope most of you were able to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics on Friday; I cannot understate what an important event this is for China, and of course, the world. So much has been poured into the preparations, and it represents such an important moment for China - one that can be tangibly felt in every person here. Although you'll be arriving shortly after the Olympics have finished, I hope that seeing the fanfare and spectacle of the preparations China has made will get you even more excited to be starting your studies in such exciting, historical times. 中国加油！(Note, if you didn't already know, Pepperdine was honored to have Charles Hall, our Dean of International Programs, participate in the opening ceremony show. You would have to look closely to see him on TV, but I was able to find a picture of his participation in the various news coverage afterwards. What an honor for Charles!)

As you get ready in these last weeks, I'd like to invite you to ask final questions that you might have - I'll respond to you personally, but will also post questions for everyone to see in the FAQ section, as I'm sure we'll all benefit from the shared knowledge. You can submit them via the contact form, or look up Chris Van Velzer in the Pepperdine email system to email me directly (I won't post my email address here, so as to avoid spam-bots from having a party in my inbox). You can also leave a comment directly in this post.

Please feel free to keep us in your prayers as we finish out the last of the planning this month, and of course- pray for your fellow Shanghai-men (that's the 'Chinese men 们 ,' not the English, gender-specific variety). I will be praying for you all until we see you at the airport!