Thanks to technological advances and a global communications network, I can answer that question about my eldest daughter better than ever: she is 9,750 metres over eastern Russia, moving at close to 90% the speed of sound.
It is also tomorrow where she is already.
I drove Fenya to the airport early this morning, where she met some classmates who will be joining her in Harbin, China, for a month of fairly intensive language studies.
I should stress that she is not a language major; she took Introductory Chinese in her freshman year at UAlberta simply because she needed a language credit and Mandarin looked and sounded interesting. It ended up being her favourite class, thanks largely to the excellence of her professor.
Early in the second semester, the class was told of a program that could see them earning two semesters of language credits in a single month, with plenty of opportunities to practice in everyday life. The flight notwithstanding, the associated bursaries and grants made the course comparable in cost to taking Chinese 201 and 202 here in Edmonton, so after a little deliberation, she leapt at the opportunity.
There are 7 friends from her class going as well, and she had them over for a games night earlier this year, which somehow then turned into an impromptu pot luck. They all seem like delightful people, and wonderful travelling companions.
For myself, I'm now dining on the familiar parental smorgasborg of mixed emotions: a hefty serving of pride, tinged with not insignificant concern for her physical and emotional wellbeing, garnished with a dash of jealousy. Not at the fortuity of the trip itself, but at her having the courage to take it. I strongly doubt I would have had the guts when I was in my first year of university.
China is Google-free as a rule, necessitating the arrangement of a Yahoo email account and a Sino-friendly messaging app called WeChat that we have all dutifully downloaded. Audrey and I texted with her via SSM in the Vancouver airport, wishing her luck and telling her how anxious we are to hear from her on the other side of the world.
Her flight left late, but the crew of China Air 992 are pushing their 777 above their filed speed in an effort to make up the time. After 10 hours in the air to Beijing, there is yet another two-hour leg to Harbin, a city in the north of China that happens to be Edmonton's sister city.
It is fairly distant from Beijing, being north of even North Korea and due east of Mongolia. Audrey observed tonight that Fenya is actually closer to Vladivostok than the Chinese capital.
WIth a 14 hour time difference, it really does feel like she is a world away. Communication will no doubt be a challenge, but at least we won't have to wait for a postcard to know she's arrived safely.
No doubt the month will pass more quickly for her than it will for us at home, which I would be far more comfortable with if there was another tracker that would simply reassure me that she is safe and enjoying herself at any given time. In the meantime, knowing she is doing something like Mach 0.87 with a group of friends on her way to a learning experience in a distant land is more than enough to bring a smile to my face.
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