NEW BLOG ALERT

Hey guys! Just so you know, I'll be moving to Shanghai in a month, and you can track my journey on my NEW and IMPROVED travelog: The Gap Year.

Enjoy!

Darfur Radio Project

If anyone still looks at this from time to time--

...please check out the Darfur Radio Project at http://www.darfurradioproject.org. DRP is one of the many reasons I don't have time to blog here during the school. I won't give too many hints about what it is- I want you to go see- but I will say that our new February show is up and I'm hosting, so definitely go see what it's all about.

this may be the last for a while...

Well I am writing this from Minneapolis, where I make my permanent residence. After a nightmare travel day (ugh) I finally arrived at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport on Saturday night, where I was surprised at how dingy and downtrodden the airport looked in comparison to the airport I had left behind in Shanghai. Usually the Minneapolis airport seems familiar and homey; I am not used to feeling that it is quaint and antiquated. At any rate, adjusting to the time change has been a lot harder than it was the first time around. I don't think I'm completely over my jet-lag seeing as I napped for about 5 hours yesterday and still managed to get about 10 hours of sleep in the night. That said, it's hard to say what's jet lag and what's just generally being tired and needing a lot of sleep to recover from the semester, not to mention the fact that being home is tiring just in the sense that it's a massive change. The landscape here seems very spread out and quaint. The snow is abominable and yesterday was the first day the temperature spent any significant amount of time above 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Today it was warmer but also poured freezing rain, so I have had my pick of unpleasant Minnesota winter weather since I've been home, I guess.

At the moment I am waiting for Han to arrive. His plane should be on the ground in about 20 minutes, at which point I will leave and go to the airport to fetch him. I am so happy and also a bit amazed that we managed to not break up and not even get in a fight through all this time. He is such a wonderful constant to have in my life, and besides being an incredible boyfriend, is also a really good friend. I am lucky to have him and I can't wait to see him.

I think this marks the end of the "friendliest girl in town" blog, at least for now. I'm going to miss keeping a blog, I guess, but the sad truth is that there's less variety in my day-to-day life at home/Swarthmore, so I have less to report on. I'm not one of those David Sedaris types who can make magical essays out of monotony and tedium, much as I wish I were. I wasn't even going to write again after that "what i learned" post but since my dad asked me to post these last pictures, I thought I'd give it one last go.

For those not in the know, my dad came to Shanghai for my last week of CET, and after the program ended we took a tour to Xi'an and Beijing. Of the 800+ photos we took, here is a selection of some of the best.



With some friends in Shanghai



Near People's Square










Hai Bao, the mascot for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai



Art Deco



On the Bund, in front of Pudong Financial District



At the Yu Gardens






Yes they have FedEx in China...



View from above...




Xintiandi



Site of the first communist party congress



hot pot



jing an temple





Graduation



Top of the Shanghai World Financial Center



House/garden in Suzhou





Silk factory in Suzhou




Pulling the stuffing for a silk blanket



Zhou Zhuang water town












Xi'an ancient city wall




Market below the wall



A man trying to catch a bird



Father enjoying the old weapons



Feng Shui museum



A very lucky pixiu



Dumpling banquet



Tang Dynasty Show





With our guide in front of a Pixiu at the Shaanxi Provincial Museum, which had some of the oldest artifacts either of us had ever seen



Shaanxi Provincial Museum boasting Tang Dynasty style fishtail roof



At the Big Wild Goose Pagoda



Qin Dynasty (third century BC) terracotta warriors



Each has an individual face and uniform






Ideological training



Tiananmen Square, Beijing



it was very cold





First gate to Forbidden City



Inside Forbidden City











Temple of Heaven











Olympic Birdsnest



Cloisonne Factory - working with the copper



Adding enamel color at the cloisonne factory



Ancient section of the great wall



Great Wall (badaling section)




The 8th Watchtower (we're heroes)






At the Sacred way some of the statues don't smile...



...and some do! ;)








Rickshaw ride through the Hu Tong district






Part of the tour was eating a homecooked meal in this lady's house :)



Her 30+ year old turtle and talking bird



With a Qilin at the summer palace



Phoenix (sign of the empress)



Dragon (sign of the emperor)



Manmade lake at the summer palace





Bat, the symbol of happiness because its name is pronounced "bian fu" and "fu" is also the pronunciation of the word for happiness




Crane, symbol of longevity, atop a turtle, also a symbol of longevity, so basically a massive longevity symbol



The long corridor (a really long walkway)








Making some new friends :P





Empress Cixi's marble boat



and an infamous Chinese squat toilet.



It's been fun guys. Merry Christmas to those who celebrated it, and to all a happy new year. Here's hoping for more excitement in 2009. . .