Six days to go...

Dear Diary,

Yep. Six Days.

We are flying out to Hong Kong on Sunday the 20th of July to begin our 7 month stint in the middle kingdom. We've decided to start this blog instead of doing the group e-mail thing so those who are interested can keep up with what we are doing over there (and therefore won’t have to listen to our noobish holiday stories once we get home!).

Caitlin will start Uni at Shandong University on September 1st and I will begin teaching at the Shandong Institute of Commerce and Technology (that's a scary thought!) on August 31st. Both of those are in Jinan City, Shandong Province for those of you playing at home.

We are just in the process of clearing out our old West End Queenslander - selling all of our furniture, moving stuff over to Megan and Jim's and cancelling all financial obligations we have in Australia (not many just gas, electricity, internet, phone etc).

We are going to miss this place. I am going to put some photos up for reminiscent purposes, but you can look at them too if you like.

We went out for some spirited spirits at Southbank's 'Plough Inn' as a small going away bash with some friends. It was really good. We got home about two and had to get up this morning to apply for my visa and get Caitlin's visa back. Caitlin now has her F visa and I should have my z visa (working visa) by tomorrow. I paid extra to have it done by tomorrow because you can't put a price on good organisation ;)

Anyway, as far as this blog goes, we will try to put in an entry once or twice a week. I think I'll do all my entries on the Sabbath each week.

Until our next post, see you later faithful readers.

Pauly

P.s - for those noobs who need an explanation, this wikipedia article relating to noobs should bring you up to speed. Noobs.

Origin

The word newbie is a variant of 'new boy' and comes from British public school and military slang. Its earliest known usage on the Internet may have been on the USENET newsgroup talk.bizarre^[1].

Before it entered popular discourse by way of the Internet, the term "newbie" had a limited usage among U.S. troops in the Vietnam War as a slang term for a new man in a unit.^[2]

Alternative spellings

"Newbie" can be used as a term to identify newcomers to a game, place, or organization. The variant spellings of "newbie" are also used, especially in online games, as a catch-all insult regardless of the recipient's actual skill or experience. Someone who acts like a "newbie," but isn't one would be referred to as one of the variant spellings.^{[citation needed]} The variant "noob" has become common in spoken English in parts of New York City and New Jersey as a substitute for the word dude. Alternative spellings include "newb," "n00b," "N00B," "noob," and "nub". These alternative spellings of the term, other than "newb," inherit the definition of "newbie" but are generally used in a derogatory manner to indicate uselessness because of the ignorance associated with being a newcomer.