Hello. As you can see, this is my first post, so I just thought I'd lay out my raison d'etre for this blog. I want to give my friends and family at least a little glimpse of what my life is like in China during the next 27 months of Peace Corps service. Oh, and I've also always wanted to use the phrase "raison d'etre" in a sentence.

So there you have it. I hope that my posts will be informative, interesting and perhaps at times mildly entertaining. Please comment as you'd like, or email me. I'll always welcome your tidbits of news and opinion.