HOLY COW!

HOLY COW!

I haven't blogged in nearly 2 months and more importantly, I'm leaving Aceh in less than 2 weeks!

HOLY COW!

I'm sorry that I have ignored you. Life's been, well, life's been pretty craaazy!

The last time you heard, I had just arrived in Beijing, where there was a pork shortage. I spent a total of 24 days in China, gallivanting around the country.

Here's a synopsis of my China adventure. My parents met me in Beijing and the three of us travel south to Chengdu in Sichuan province, the cultural capital of central China, made famous by The Three Kingdoms. Chengdu is famous for its snack culture and spicy hotpot. So needless to say, we ate well here. Highlights included strolling down Jin Li, a renovated cultural street filled with Sichuan arts and crafts. The next day, we flew 45 minutes north to Huang Long and Jiu Zhai Go. Here, we were at an altitude of about 3500 meters and hiked through some beautiful scenery. Snowy peaks, romantic waterfalls, turquoise blue pools. We then returned to Beijing and Dad went back to DC the following day.

After a couple of days hanging out in Beijing, including me spending 3+ hours getting a perm, Mom and I boarded an overnight train to Shanghai where we rendezvoused with K and and spent a great weekend checking out the skyline from our 52 floor posh hotel room, strolling along the Huang Pu River, and introducing K to Chinese culture at Cheng Huang Miao, a Taoist temple and surrounding gardens.

The day after I returned from Shanghai, I got on ANOTHER train...this time an amazingly beautiful 47 hour and 28 minute ride to Lhasa, Tibet. I traveled to Tibet with my uncle. For 10 days, we toured monasteries, temples, palaces, and holy lakes in Tibet...well not to mention all the shopping stops on our package tour. Tea shop, bead shop, weird medicine shop, yak meat jerky shop, just to name a few! Tibet was definitely a memorable experience. By the way, click on all the links above, they're links to my photos!

OK, so now back in Aceh.

Movers are coming next Tuesday to pack up my stuff. My last day of work is Friday the 27th and I fly to Jakarta that night and on to Bali where Scott, Pete and Meg from high school will be joining me for 2 weeks of rest and relaxation in the sun!

That's all for now. More later!