been more homesick lately...maybe it's hitting the one year mark without a chance to go home for a recharge...maybe it's the nonstop pace of life right now. then there's the little things -- D gets Costco emails and gets kinda sad. Weekend Sherpa emails make me yearn for a hike in fresh air and mountains, not to mention the everpresent longing for crisp grapes and froyo.
after a particularly stressful week, with much homesickness lurking, i couldn't believe what opened across the street from our place! not as delicious as the pinkberries and yogurt harmonies of the world, but totally not complaining. SO not a coincidence, you know what i mean?
it has been HOT here...like the i-can't-breathe, everybody-on-my-commute-is-sweaty-ick kind of hot (okay, i cheat and take taxi when i can't take handle)...yet the official weather reports have been constantly 39 point something C (roughly 100+ F, not counting the humidity) when it most definitely feels hotter. weird right. we've since learned the good old chinarese g-o-v doesn't like to report official temperatures higher than 39.999999999 C. we wouldn't want anyone to panic that it's too hot, now would we.
Um, I know, no excuse could possibly make up for the delinquency of 3 months without a post. But pics will!! kekeke.
The last 3 months have been a blur, with back-to-back visitors (14 in total! 5 who stayed with us), a midnite trip to the emergency room for D (all better now), and a move to SH in early July. On top of work and class, it's been a blast but also kind of cra-zeeeeee.
We introduced you to our place in BJ and the "view" (of the snow mostly!)...here's the view from where we are staying in SH on a rare clear semi-unpolluted evening (D took the photo). BJ and SH are so different...both sprawling metros, but one very traditional, square and masculine, one more modern and feminine. Will leave you to figure out which is which.
We've been on the go so much that it's hard to know how to describe the latest transition...we miss friends in BJ heaps, and everyone at home. This transition has been harder than the one we made a year ago from the U.S. to BJ. But we're starting to meet friends here, and both of us having coworkers helps.
It's funny what makes us homesick...when I find D in a contemplative mood, 9 times out of 10 it's because he got a Costco email. hehe. I think we both get a little homesick after good skype convos with you all at home, especially when we talk to the wee wittle ones. Me, I miss clean air and water and mountains for hiking. Oh, and crisp green grapes. Eat some for me.
sorry friends, we have been remiss...more than a month without a post. life has been a bit crazy (and will be for the next two months)...but fun! much has happened since march -- visitors (sophia! leian! vicky!), big decisions, lots of birthdays, transition from freezing to less freezing to slightly warm weather -- i wore flip-flops outside for the first time since last october, total bliss.
have been in tokyo for two days for work (i may also have gone shopping)...it's so interesting, it feels as if there are almost as many people in the center of tokyo as there are in parts of beijing, and yet over here they all wait for stoplights. when it turns green, the enormous mass of people start moving into the intersection, with no cars or scooters or bikes threatening to run you down. by the time it's red, all pedestrians are magically back on the sidewalks and then the cars and scooters and bikes start moving. could not be more different from china. i have no fear of being run over here. or of public bathrooms.
for those who've been wondering where the chick and the duck have been...sorry, still don't know. we've been wondering these many wintery months too...whether they've been consumed or are simply resting in comfort in some warm apartment around here.
but a sure sign that spring is around the corner...their boyfriend's back! i started hearing random cockle-doodle-doos yesterday and coming home in the afternoon, ran into this dude. he's gotten quite a bit fatter since i last saw him. gives me hope for the chick and the duck...
i'm personally hoping for some chickies and ducklets to randomly appear sometime soon.
i've been bopping around the apartment this morning (it's saturday) going "too legit...too legit to knit" he-ey heeeeey. okay, it was the tagline from a DailyCandy email about made-to-order knitwear which promptly got MC Hammer stuck in my head. it also began a very-temporary-oh-we-should-start-a-website thought to a few girls here who help encourage my tendency for sporadic knitting projects. alas these random ideas go as fast as they come, but at least now we're going to try and make legwarmers. i have a pair of purple ones i got at the clothing market here that i wear all the time. i think everyone should wear legwarmers, they're awesome, and not just for keeping out ridiculously cold chinar weather. even the NYTimes says so: Don't Worry, Aerobics Are Optional
today (U.S. time) is mama lo's birthday! D and I caught her before going to bed last nite so we could wish her "shengri kuaile" and she was in a great mood, laughing and laughing...she said it was because she had just woken up and sang "happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to...mee-eeee, happy birthday to me" and it made her very happy. awesome.
she is on her own for her birthday in SD this year...we are in china, r&h working in norcal, and daddy won't be home until friday (he's had to travel a lot since taking the job in rochester, commuting across the country from SD so that mommy can keep living there). but every indication is she's having a rocking birthday...she told us she was going to do whatever she wanted all day, starting by going to a class at the gym, then going shopping and buying herself a cake (whatever kind she likes). again, so awesome.
we all did everything we could...video, gifts, treats...and of course lots of calls and skyping to show our love (daddy also wrote a long lo family email, in a way only he can, in honor of her birthday). but in the end, she was already happy. she doesn't mind being physically alone, because she knows she's really not. her loved ones are happy and healthy, and she is too. selfless mommies are the best. i mean, she's awesome.
since the four of us kids (R, H, D and me) could not be with her on her birthday, we made her a video. props to R&H for the editing...underneath their EECS & finance/accounting veneer, my brother and sisnlaw are budding creative geniuses.
