It's that time again...

Well, officially I leave for China on friday morning. I have a 9am flight to Toronto, then leave Toronto to head for Shanghai, then go from Shanghai to Harbin, our first stop on the second leg of the tour.

OOh, I am so torn about this. I do want to travel and see the sights, but I really don't want to leave. Unlike how I felt the first time, this time is different. In the first case, I had prepared myself to leave town for 8 months. That was hard to do. That was the longest I would have been away from my family, friends, terry, etc. But eventually, I got myself mentally there, and settled in nicely at the begining.

This time, we got sent home, and due to the earthquake as well as all of the layoff extensions (it went from 4 weeks long to 9 weeks long), there seemed to be no end to the layoff, and I began getting settled at home. Now, to be perfectly honest, I don't want to go back. At this point, I don't have a choice, so I am going to try to make the best of it.

What has been frustrating is the questions that both myself and my co-performers are asking, important ones, that are going unanswered. It seems to be a problem with this tour, lack of information and blatant lack of response to important questions. I am still upset over the two weeks of non-communication following the earthquake. I didn't try contacting Troika directly, but many others did and were greeted by voicemails and unanswered emails, and I thought two weeks was an inapropriate amount of time to send official word. It's not like it happened in a random country, or in a city we weren't going to have anything to do with, it happened in our tour country and in our opening city where we'd made friends and spent the longest amount of time.

Requests for roommate help have been ignored (and I know several people asked), as were my recent requests to find out how our luggage was stored (if it was stored in heat, it's very likely all lotions, deoderants, and gels have melted, so I would need to purchase new ones) and requests for an updated itinerary with contracted cities noted (which I asked in the sense of planning visits for Terry, and maybe Heather- don't want them to book a visit to a city we aren't sure about, and would also help with in the packing of clothes).

It's been pretty frustrating, and that has a great deal to do with my current feelings about the tour.

I left the tour unhappy, but I am going to try to go back with a different mindset.

I have some new goals. I have been researching how to get fit while on tour. This is something that I have decided is really important. I've been saying it for several years, but for some reason, I think I finally may have the opportunity and desire to really do something about it. I hope our hotels are nice enough to have gyms, but just in case, I am bringing several DVDs, a ballet strength conditioning DVD as well as a Jillian Michaels DVD set (from biggest loser, i really liked her, so i hope i like her DVDS), and am bringing a jump rope and resistance bands. i hope to come back looking and feeling healthier.

I am also making the decision not to rely on others. I think I made that mistake on the first go-round, waiting for others to invite me or to decide on their plans, and I ended up missing out on a lot of cool stuff. Not this time.

Also, I'll have a new roommate. I am not sure if I'll be reassigned a roomie or if Sarah and I will be roommates, that has yet to be decided.

I wish I knew how long we were going back for.

But right now, it is what it is. I'm going to make the best of it that I can. If I have to go back, I am going to enjoy whatever I can. I won't go back to any of these places on my own, so I'll try to enjoy.