china - winter 2006 - yunnan province

ready-to-eat crabs

kunming stone forest

morning tai chi

happy chinese man feeding red-beaked seagulls

dali three towers

lijiang's jade dragon snow mountain. glaciers on top!

yaks!

and yak meat?....

drying peppers the yunnan province is known for

mo suo girl and the old town of lijiang. fyi - the mo suo people are a matriarchal society without the institution of marriage, and kids are raised by the woman's family.

mmmm.... tree bark, anyone??

at the *dangerous* black dragon pool

giant shelf mushrooms on display in a giant limestone cave

guilin

narrowest rivercraft ever

yin & yang soup

intricate ivory carvings - talk about attention to detail.... the insides of the ball are something like 47 layers deep!

i <3 china??

the above is only a sample of the millions of pics we took. all in all a really great trip. besides everything being really scenic, it was so interesting to see how different things can be.. from here, from the cities in china, etc. i absorbed a lot just by observing, and i definitely want to see the rest of china! a few observations:

1 - crops are grown on terraced hills, i guess so farmers can use as much land as possible in a mountainous region
2 - i don't think i saw a single piece of farming equipment, unless you count hoes, water buffalo and maybe whatever thing it is that the water buffalo pulls
3 - as poor as some of the rural regions look on the surface, if anything electronic was to be found, i'm guessing it would be the TVs that the many satellite dishes on the roofs service
4 - they dont use kleenex... pretty much spit/blow their noses/cough wherever they want...
5 - 99.9999% of the people that smoke there are men
6 - you can smoke anywhere
7 - 99.9999% of the girls are so incredibly skinny
8 - people drive recklessly and like to play chicken on the road
9 - beggars/salespeople can be very persistent and might follow you all the way to the tour bus door
10 - parts of china are incredibly beautiful

ahhhh new year's. what a time. this year was the first time i got to PARTY, and in chicago, too! it was so fun, just danced the whole night away. fabulous. funny because tara reid was the host of it, and she had that characteristic voice, kinda raspy, so when she yells it is like.... sandpaper? iono. she also had an entourage, among which was an individual you may know as pedro from napoleon dynamite ("vote for pedro!!") he was breakin' it down on stage, and he doesnt really look like his character in the movie.. good or bad? dunno. but they had good music, lotsa drinks and tasty food. maybe i can post pics sometime if i ever get my hands on 'em.

also went to china for christmas break. when i get pics of those i'll post, too. maybe. if i am not lazy then. pics on my camera are only from the 1st two days, after which my batteries died. and i forgot to bring my charger. sigh.

china is such a unique place. i mean it is so huge, so it has all kinda of terrain. parts we went to were pretty beautiful. rural. simple. got some fun things to decorate the apt. my family and i were in the yunnan province in south central or southwestern china, visiting guangzhou, kunming, dali, lijiang, guilin and yangshuo.

pros of being in a tour group
1) everything is taken care of
     a) where to eat 
     b) where to stay
     c) where to go
     d) how to get anywhere
2) meeting people also on the tour
     a) funny lady who played ping pong w/my brother and me and was smiles all the time
     b) couple who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary... free cake!
     c) tour guides who were all locals of some region or another
     d) sisters who might know someone we know... small world, i love it!
3) who else would sing karaoke on the bus road trip??

cons of being in a tour group
1) everything in chinese, constantly had to ask for translation
2) less free time to do spontaneous things
3) early wake-up calls

okay that is all i can think of right now. on to new year's resolutions.
1) eat healthy
2) exercise more
3) plan a longer-than-a-weekend trip for once instead of just talking about it all the time
4) save money
5) keep more plants alive for longer
6) get more exciting resolutions.... yikes.

 S N O W   D A Y!!

thank you snowstorm for making friday a vacation day. first snow of the winter, pretty exciiiiting. i just wish i had someone to go play IN the snow with. but... i have no gear, i can't drive anywhere, so i'm just enjoying the sun shining into my window.  happiness.

here is what i saw on my balcony this morning

side view

the ground from my window

hello robin. *edit: oops, i mean cardinal! thx alex!*

sky just before current sunny conditions

so now i get to relax at home all day. i LOVE IT. and here i thought only schools shut down, hehhehheh. just hope the roads get cleared by tonight so we can go out still!

st. patrick's day weekend

green beer. coldness. harvard. huang sisters and friends. esthar. vanessa. boondock saints church. freedom trail. and so... much.... foooooood....