Asides

Thinking of a trip to Harbin to see the ice and snow sculptures? Take a look at the Boston Globe's Big Picture photo essay on the festival instead. It'll save you a bunch of money and you'll be a lot warmer. ;) (0)

In honor of the New Year, (Chinese New Year, that is), I've spent my Monday creating this new blog theme. I still have a few tweaks to do here and there, but they will have to wait until I return from the New Year holiday. (0)

So I'm going to assume all the crazy fireworks I am hearing outside are for "Little" Spring Festival? (Celebrated one week prior to the real deal.) Either that or we've been invaded... ♦ (0)

The bus that I ride to work every morning is outfitted with a TV and DVD player and everyday we get treated to Chinese comedy shows, Chinese pop music videos, and every once in a while, Russian girls in bikinis gyrating to techno dance music. This morning the video was a techno remix of the Eurythmics' hit "Sex Crime," complete with shots of a crowded disco, DJ hard at work and, of course, Russian girls in bikinis gyrating to the music. The beat is really thumping, too. Nice morning wakeup! (0)

Posts on the 798 Art District in Beijing and our trip to Qufu have been postponed until tomorrow. I've just been feeling a general malaise yesterday and today, possibly related to the hours of walking in the cold of Qufu all day Sunday. Since I've decided to start my new year's resolutions on Chinese New Year (February 14th), I guess it is still okay to procrastinate! ;) (0)

We're kinda bored today, so we decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Qufu, home of Confucius. It's just a couple of hours from us. We're headed to the train station now. We'll stay the night, see the town tomorrow and come back tomorrow night. See you then! (0)

I'm typing this quick bit on my brand new iphone, a Christmas gift from the DH. It is so much fun to use, but typing here is a little tedious... I've got lots to catch up on so I'd better switch to my laptop and stop showing off, right?! (0)

I can safely say now that it is pretty much impossible for me to properly maintain my blog while on vacation... but every vacation I think this will be the one where I blog everything. Hmmmm, no. I leave tomorrow for Seattle and Beijing. There might be a return to normalcy here once I'm back in Linyi. See you soon! (0)

On my way to Copper Mountain for some snowboarding... I hope to make it back in one piece! (0)

The FedEx Man (who is actually female) brought me great joyness today by delivering my MacBook Pro two days early! So, yea, posts are going to be thin the next few days as I spend every waking moment exploring and organizing! (0)