Catching up...

It's been so long, I'm not really sure where to start! I'll begin with an apology to those of you that I made promises to, that I would blog more. I suppose I'm not off to the best start. I like to think of myself as more of a quality vs. quantity girl, so hopefully this doesn't disappoint. ;)

Gelina, Kandra, Claire and Kenzie...making
"Chinese" look good. :) 

I'm so lucky I got to go home and spend Christmas with the best family ever! It was too short of course, I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do, but it was still awesome. I watched my niece Gelina kick butt in basketball, I was able to spend lots of time with my sister Nancy which was so special to me, I got to help my sister Suzette give her over-confident husband Josh and my feisty little niece Gelina a beat down in basketball (okay, maybe we didn't win according to the score, but it was a moral victory), I had some great times drinking wine and playing ridiculous board games with some of my best friends and I got to spend a really wonderful Christmas Eve with my mom. We went to midnight mass together, and then came home, popped in White Christmas, opened a bottle of wine and talked while wrapping Christmas presents until 4:00 in the morning. :) I'm so thankful for these memories.




After arriving back in Wuxi I had 1 week of school and then was off for the weekend to Harbin, China....coldest place I've ever been! It's located in NE China, close to the Russian border. It's sinfully cold in the winter and is known for their Snow & Ice Festival. The festival was very cool, but different. I think slowly I'm learning that if something is supposed to be beautiful in China, you need to expect an element of pure cheesiness to accompany it. During the day, the giant sculptures made of snow and ice were pretty amazing...I do have to say. But at night, the neon lights turned on and everything went from amazing, to straight up corny. That was kind of okay with me though, because after walking around for 6 hours in nearly 50 below, my breath freezing on the outside of my face mask, and my eyelashes growing icicles, I was absolutely fine sitting in a little cafe with a cup of....what I guess you call coffee, while the others walked around, took pictures and slid down slides made of ice.

View from the highest point...it shows most of the festival. 

I HAD to sport the Trailblazers t-shirt and mom and dad....I hope you really appreciate this because
it was freakin cold!!!!

One picture at night...I guess it is kind of cool looking, but trust me, it was way over the top! Thanks to Doug for taking
the picture when I was unwilling to bear the temperatures or the bright lights. ;) 

Because of it's location, Harbin does have a fairly strong Russian influence in town- the food, languages heard and seen and the architecture. We stumbled across Saint Sophia's Cathedral; it was beautiful and kind of refreshing...it suddenly felt like we were not in China anymore.

After Harbin I had only 2 weeks left of school before heading to SE Asia for Chinese New Year holiday! What a rough life I lead. ;) It was so nice though...to break up those 2 long, agonizingly painful weeks of work, we had a Chinese New Year dinner. The whole staff went to a local Chinese restaurant. It was so much fun eating interesting food (eel anyone?), drinking wine (perhaps a bit too much) and celebrating with the staff, both western and Chinese. It rarely happens that everyone gets together, so I thought this was really special and I enjoyed it very much! 

L-R: Tina (best office I can imagine!), Michael (American who secretly
loves the Seahawks and Skittles), Daniela (Slovakian/American who, I'm
pretty sure, sleeps with a Seahawks pillow at night). 

My Russell Wilson jersey (courtesy of my sister Suzette) was my date for the night...he never disappoints as we all know. :) He was very social and made his way around the party, introducing people from all over the world, to a little team called the Seattle Seahawks. It was a proud night for both of us and I think I can safely say, Wuxi, China...loves the Hawks!

 

James, the IT manager at school, loves anything American! I think I totally converted him. :)

Simon Saunders, Head of School. I'm pretty sure he's not a huge fan of American football...but he was a great sport!












This guy wins the award for my favorite Seahawks fan...little Nadeem Ahmed. While his mom and  especially his dad may not believe that American football is in fact...football....Nadeem is a HUGE fan! I suspect his big brother Zav is probably a fan as well. :)

This past Sunday I got home from an amazing two weeks traveling in SE Asia. I spent a couple of days in the vibrant and bustling city of Bangkok, Thailand, spent 10 days traveling all around Cambodia, and ended the holiday with a couple of days in and around Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. I'm still working on editing the pictures from the trip, but I'll share a couple with you now... 

Zaijian 再见