Francophile in the West

Photo #1- The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, Beijing. Photo #2- The Temple of Heaven, Beijing. Photo #3- The French Concession of Shanghai. Photo #4- The Oriental Pearl Tower, Shanghai.

Whoa, I feel like I'm still all over the place! So many things to do every day. I'm officially back into school and work in Seattle, and things are going fine, but my time is constantly occupied. Here's basically what's been going on lately: I put in my two weeks at the pizza place! Wahoo!! Man, that felt good. I am so ready quit that job. The extra money was SO helpful this summer, but it's my senior year of college and my nights must be free for socializing, homework, relaxing, whatever the case may be. Huzzah for good times at all times!! The girls and I are having a GREAT time together!! We went out last Saturday night and hit up Neighbors, the gay club on Cap Hill, and some other random club called Havana or something (we didn't see any official signage), and had a great time just dancing the night away until about 2:30am. SO FUN. We all want to do it again. On Sunday night, we went to the Compline service at St. Mark's Cathedral on Cap Hill (what was w

Picture #1- The most adorable old monk at the Sera Monastary Picture #2- THE Potala Palace, former home of the Dalai Lama Picture #3- Mountains behind the Jokhang Temple and Barkor market

I survived China! Why haven't I written in about three weeks? The Blogger website is blocked in the PRC (People's Repub. of China)! Limited free speech, anyone? Anyway, my Dad and I made it back to the States today (Mom's coming back on Sunday), and boy, are we happy to be in the U.S. of A! I don't want to eat any more Chinese food until I'm at least 35 years old. I am SO tired of soy sauce and fried rice and greasy, breaded meats. First thing I ate when I got home today? An entire can of black beans, and then a heaping bowl of salad for dinner. Amazing!! The next few weeks will be MSG detox for me, ha. Well gosh, what a trip! The 1,500+ pictures that my mom, dad, and I took over the course of our 15-day excursion to mainland Asia are on a different computer, so those will have to come later, as will in-depth explainations of the three places we visited (Beijing; Lhasa, Tibet; Shanghai), but for now I'll say that it was a heck of an experience. I saw some very b