I’m still at work getting personal stuff sorted as I leave tomorrow for Seoul! They announced my five year anniversary at the staff meeting this morning. Coworkers were sweet and kind bestowing me with congratulations through out the day. It made me feel warm and fuzzy. Was it bad that I likened the five years to a (dysfunctional) longterm relationship? But I meant it in a good way.

The Tsingtao beer factory/museum (in Qingdao) was kind of fun, and the tour culminated with pitchers of free beer and delicious beer nuts (I would’ve preferred if THOSE came in a pitcher). It was a bit awkward since both my guide and me were complete lightweights. That, and the fact that he was shamelessly hitting on me during my day or two in Qingdao, made for a peculiar time. BTW — did you know Qingdao has a history of German settlers?

The creepiest/best part about this fantastically scary marionette is its jutting out leg. So much sass!

Scenes from the Great Wall’s simatai section. Known to be more isolated and challenging, and less Disney-fied. I was extremely lucky to have gotten a ride all the way out there.

I’m getting my overdue haircut tomorrow. Finally, I will have bangs again.

One of the absolute best moments of my life was walking at night and stumbling upon a pseudo-flash mob of ballroom dancing at the backside of the forbidden city. There were at least a couple rusty bikes outfitted with speaker systems, and dozens of healthy, happy, older people just delighted to get their dance on on a Friday night, 10pm-ish. Believe me, I saw some sweet rug cutting. The scene made me deliriously happy.

It was probably around this time that I started warming up to the idea of children actually being cute. A completely novel notion for me at the time.

ain’t nothin’ like a hot, crispy, fresh cong you bing (green onion pancake) to hit the spot.