The Life, Rarefied: Wow. Vacation = over.

Hey there, Kiddos!

I am back in action after being out of commission for the past couple months. I have gone up, down, sideways, left, right -- not to mention North South East and West -- for about 10 weeks. I am tired. I am hungry (but that's no one's fault but my own, I need to go to Whole Foods..), and I am fully moved into my new Connecticut apartment.

That's right. I live in Connecticut. I am nearly 30 miles from NYC and am very psyched to be here. I must say, though, it is relatively different from my home in Nanjing. For one: my current town is ~60,000 people. My town of Nanjing, in The China? ~8,000,000 people. The other difference is that I've not developed a hacking cough just yet from living in Connecticut (but I don't think I will)... I miss The China very much, yes, but one thing I will not miss is "The China Cough", which every foreigner cultivates (with a sense of pride, yup) after living in The China for any significant amount of time.

In essence, moving to CT was a very long and arduous process. I have endured many a long night. This is just a quick rundown of what I've been subjected to in the past few months (some of them were my own fault, though... I'm not perfect):

1) missing my train from Nanjing to Shanghai (where I was to depart from The China)
2) missing my flight home to the US (oops, Mom did not enjoy that phone call.. "Oh, MY LANTA~")
3) dealing with a snooty, entitled Chinese driver of a Toyota who drove the wrong way down a one way street, backing up 5 cars coming the other direction -- SEE: red-headed fury, friends.
4) UMMM --- MEETING MC HAMMER ON A PLANE TO THE WEST COAST -- this was incredible -- he's so old now, I had to ask which one he was -- nevertheless, I got to tell him my grandma made me purple parachute pants when I was...oh wait, that's right... EIGHT YEARS OLD, because (oh yes...I'd forgotten..) THAT'S WHEN YOU WERE POPULAR, MR. HAMMAH-TIME. (and some say I'm subtle).
5) traveling 15,548miles within 10 days (and that was only 1 flight across seas... the others were all mini flights/drives)
6) having to pack up my entire life by myself, put it in boxes, then realize I've forgotten the laundry that I did the day before in the washing machine
7) 36 hours of road tripping
8) broke the tip of my toe (I got through 13 months of living in The China without getting injured and my 2nd day back in the States I stub my toe and voila-- broken .. what luck.)

and the final travesty I've been subjected to since arriving in the US :

9) the unfortunate circumstance that people in the US can understand what I say on most days ... which leaves me at a loss for when I want to say exactly what comes to my head when I stub my toe and break it...

and for now... enjoy this montage of pictures :


"Firmly push forward the construction of the New Communist Countryside" (to urge local population to want a newer, more modern, but communist, era for rural Chinese)