PiB 2007 Preparation Updates

Greetings! This is Teng-Kuan, the PiB Program Coordinator you've been corresponding with for the past few months. Before anything else, here's wishing you, once again, a big hearty congratulations! I hope you're all getting happy and excited - as I am - about going to Beijing! It's going to be tough, but may you find comfort in this faithful saying worthy of all acceptance: per aspera ad astra ("Through hardship, to the stars"). Or, as the Puritans sometimes say, the way down is the way up.

This entry you're reading is the first of a series of updates that will help you prepare for the program. Of course, if you have queries, feel free to email or call me, and I will do my best. If I've been curt or unhelpful in the past, I truly seek your forgiveness. Like you, I am still learning...

As stated in the "[PiB 2007] Deposit and Enrollment Form Received" email, I am in the process of getting the handbook, tuition bill, and miscellaneous important forms to you. Depending on the printers (i.e., the people working them), I hope to send them off next week.

In light of the steadily escalating price of plane tickets - and considering your myriad queries dripping with eager curiosity - the PiB Handbook is now available online in Word format here! To save the trees I'd plead with you to hold off printing it out because the hardcopies will be arriving pretty soon, but if you have to, please print 2 pages per sheet. (That's how it's formatted.) A map of Beijing Normal University and where it's located in Beijing can be found here.

Information about arrival/departure dates can be found beginning on page 26 of the handbook. One thing I would ask, though: there will be much more information in the cover letter that will be sent to you with the handbook, so please try to exercise restraint in your queries? It's only a matter of time when all will be revealed! (Patience, my little ones.)

Finally, for those of you so inclined, a facebook group (“Princeton in Beijing 2007”) has been created, which I am confident will serve as a conducive platform for developing authentic, meaningful relationships before you leave for the summer together.

Well, that's about all for now, folks! Will talk to you soon. Take care.

P.S: As polite and honorific as it might be, please refrain from referring to me as the hoary "Mr. Ng," or even the misnomic "Earnest" (which is meant to be a fancy synonym for the bland "Sincerely," "Truly," etc.). As you surely will in Beijing, please simply call me "Teng-Kuan."

# posted by Teng-Kuan Ng @ 12:30 PM