America Bonanza 2012

I connected from Paris to Savannah, Georgia where I visited Laura. From Savannah, I flew back to Atlanta, where I saw Heather and some of Carter Center friends, before a visa issue allowed me to travel north to DC. 

Savannah, Georgia

Where I make love to a Reuben.

Hipstamatic self photo taking

Angel. Let's be honest, so far this has been a Laura love fest.

 A baby crab in an oyster, at a Colonial Dames oyster roast.

When worlds collide.

Gorgeous South.

Atlanta, Georgia

My wife for six years. Hello, Lindsey!

 Tessa!

 Washington, DC


When worlds collide! Jo, Sara, and Nicko at Logan Tavern for brunch.

I can't believe we're in America. Tom and I at Coastal Flats.

I think I was in America as long as I was in Europe.  I returned to China a little bit early to hang out with some friends in Beijing. America, I love you. See you in 3 months.

Ye Olde Europa 2012

On Chinese New Year, I flew directly from Atlanta to Barcelona. From Barcelona, I flew to Paris, and from Paris, I flew to Savannah, Georgia.

Barcelona, Spain

Anna, Maria, and I pose on the beach in Sitges. Maria picked up Anna and together we went for a long walk - for winter, it was super warm.

Sitges streets

 Sitges sunset

Casa Mila

 Casa Battlo

Pre-gaming before SUTTON

The time that we returned home from SUTTON

Maria's mom made paella, which was better than Cal Pep.

I know because I went to Cal Pep.

The interior of Cal Pep.

The road to Maria's house.

The best view from Starbucks

 Maria and I on my last night.

THIS GUY.

Paris, France

The streets.

The croissants from Poilane.

 Le Bon Marche.

Jonathan and I - Georgians in Paris

Pure joy.

Love lockdown

 The Louvre

 Arc de Triomphe

 Streets of Monmarte

Engaged in Monmarte

 It's not Christmas in Notre Dame with Hadia

Pierre Herme

 On Rue Christine, a meeting of connections

I couldn't have planned it better.

Obligatorily, I've sewn together some pics so that you can get the whole Eiffel.

Oh Charles, I now associate you with being a haute mess and good luck :). On my way back to U.S.A.!

Modern Asia 2012

As I enthusiastically described in this blog post, I would be traveling a lot from January 12 to about February 24. In that time, I took a lot of photos and I browse through these regularly during my days here. A lot of these are on Facebook but I feel like blogging about them makes them slightly more personal. During vacations, I like to travel, meet up with friends and eat a lot of food. Here's a little bit of back blogging and a seriously abridged catalog of my adventures during my Chinese New Year break.

Taipei, Taiwan 

I visited family and Nick in Taiwan. With Nick, I take advantage of the cutest street installations ever and make him do weird poses with me. Only in Taiwan are things so clean, and bright... and clean.

Then, Nick and I went to Marquee. I feel like a grown up in civilization for the first time in months. Nick always helps me re-enter accepted social norms.

I eat food with family in Taiwan. We go big when I visit. This is at the 86th floor of the Taipei 101.

Taipei 101

En route to America


My seat to Japan.

The snacks I scarf down in the lounge in Japan.

In the interest of keeping these blog posts shorter, I'm splitting these up into four parts. Asia, Europe, America, and China. This commences the Asia portion of our tour. Please look for the next parts soon, very soon.

Nail-gasm!

Sure - at times, I have no power, no water, no selection of new clothes, no access to Middle Eastern food and yettttttttttttt every so often, a bright light shines through in the form, for me at least, in beauty services in China.

First, it was the hair washing - the place I love is lost now. Closed in the time that I went to America, I returned to Yunxian to a For Rent sign in the window. NOW, it's mah nails, girl.

Nora and I went to visit Laura for the weekend in Fengqing, the closest county to Yunxian that is a better organized version of the county that I frequent multiple times a week. It was here that Laura casually mentioned how we should get our nails done. At first, I didn't immediately love the idea. Chinese nail polish scares me and I knew that it would be one woman doing it, and none of the massages that come with a manicure at home but still, we trudged forward.

When we first arrived, the woman was tattooing eyebrows on another woman with a fat baby screaming songs about how awesome his mother is. If the noise itself wasn't so awful, the gesture would have been sweet. Her high pitched voice beckoned us to return in an hour. She had steady hands and she looked cool. I was returning in an hour.

I went first. She removed the stuff already on my nails, buffed them, trimmed them slightly, and put a layered of base coat on. I frantically flipped through nail books looking for a design.  I picked a relatively simple design that I found to be beautiful and would go with everything. Here is the product:

 YAY. She swept on the gold divider first, then covered half my nail in that creamy nude. The other half, she applied with a very fine paintbrush and white paint. Two layers of top coat later and VOILA! I'm very happy with them and I fully embrace the fact that they may only be appropriate to wear in Asia. In America, I don't see getting my nails ever done like this without it being strange and costing way too much money. The elation that I feel right now is waaay too high but it feels great!

Nora went next and it was awesome.

!!!!!! I love them. You can't tell in this picture, but the silver is a total glitter base, so at any moment, it may look like her nail is bright silver. I love it. Nora's nails are so on trend and I loves it. I've taken a billion pictures of my nails but pictures of my fingers seem weird to me so I'll withhold any of the 25 of the other photos I've taken. I'm currently plotting how I can get my nails done again in such style. How much did these beautifully painted nails cost? 15 RMB. A quick Google currency conversion says that 15 RMB = $2.38. China. WIN.

Ratatak

I didn't mistype. By the title alone you should be able to infer that I am a fan of Ratatat and that I've recently been a victim of rats.

When I returned to my room after being on vacation for 6 weeks, I returned to horror. My hoarder nature has finally come to bite me in the butt. All the food that I'd been saving for eating had been eaten through. There was a light sprinkling of poopies everywhere and no one seemed to be upset in my village, except me. How do you kill a rat in rural China?

Well, first of all, I had to come to terms with the fact that there are no exterminators. No one in my village thinks it's a big deal and that I basically live outside. Two inch wooden boards separate me from camping. How do I get rid of a rat? Patience. A LOT OF PATIENCE and some sticky paper.

Since I'm in China, let me put that into math terms to better let you better comprehend my methods.

Rat in my room = Me - sleep - food - clothes + insanity + vinegar (nature's disinfectant!) + Lucas coming over to duct tape my room + 2 weeks of time + paper covered in what seems like a bottle of rubber cement each + cookie = Wait for it.....

For those of us that are not exactly linear learners, I thought a picture would help. This is the rat caught on the paper, on top of my paper wardrobe. BOOM. I had to stand on my bed to take this picture. Good thing I'm only 5'2". When I took the picture, the rat squeaked in indignation at the brightness of the flash. It was horrifying yet pleasurable at the same time. Yay for +sleep + food +clothes!

Happy International Women's Day!

I've never really celebrated this holiday before moving to China but I now realize how important it is to celebrate IWD with my ladies!

I've had so many awesome friends in my life - always reminding me and guiding me to a path of strength, self awareness and success.

There really are too many to list. But if you read this, know that I'm thinking about you today!

Here's to us. Making good decisions that keep us centered and smart!

2 out of thousands of women that should be celebrated today!

I draw Hello Kittys for Nora

I needed some stress relief. I bought this note pad for that purpose and for an hour I drew as many Hello Kittys as I could for Nora. I enjoyed it and I hope you do too!

Happy Leap Day!

I started this Leap Day in Yunxian with my post-mate Downey! - had two delicious meals from my favorite place in town and I'm spending Leap Day in my school, cleaning out the remaining leftovers of my rat invasion - washing out my bed, and sitting in the dark for a while thinking about the special-ness of this day. This year - I'm here in Shaojie, a village that's a part of Maolan town, which is a part of Lincang city, in Yunnan - in Southwest China.

We briefly lost power and had to sit by candlelight for a teachers' meeting marking the beginning of the new semester.

Where will I be in the next Leap Day? We'll see!