Hello everyone!

I know you all have been wondering why its taken me so long to write…well, the earthquake has made accessing blogger a nightmare (my friend thinks it’s a plot to choke all foreign websites…which could be true). Since its been soooo long, I’ll take you back a few days.

Last Friday:

I had a small little dinner party at my place, Aaron, Agate, and Sarah (I only have 4 chairs) came over around 9.30 and I cooked (yes, its true) very bad (not surprising) pasta, tomato sauce from a can, and sautéed green peppers. Not sure how, but I managed to fuck up pasta. Please don’t ask me, I don’t know. But feel bad for Jeff who will be eating my cooking on a regular basis. After dinner and three bottles of wine later, we played Tarot (my favorite card game) and ate chocolate. Around 1 am, my lil’ gathering winded down and we called it a night (except for Agate who went out dancing).

Saturday:

Work, yoga, nap....dinner, two movies, back to sleep, tough day.

Sunday:

Morning- I helped the girls (Agate and Sarah) move into their new place. They live about 5 minutes walking from me. Very convenient. After the move, we came back to my house and cooked ‘brunch’ at 2pm. Sarah and I then had plans to spend New Years in Hong Kong, so we piled in a taxi and moseyed on down to the ferry. We arrived in HK (a breath of civilization in an otherwise backward existence) and went to the grocery store. We originally were going to host a troop of friends and then hit the parties across this magnificent Asian New York. And so we bought organic chips and dip, breads, cheeses, wines, snacks and chocolate. We checked out and headed on foot to Sarah’s Uncle’s flat.

The next chain events forced Sarah and I to go running around HK with bags of food and random keys.

We arrived at the door (6 floors by stairs later) only to discover that Sarah had left the correct keys in Shenzhen. Not to worry, there were spare keys ALL over the place.

30 minutes later, not a single spare was found.

No worries, we had keys to another flat.

We trekked up the street, sneaked into the building only to find out that duplicates often don’t work.

45 minutes later Sarah and I found ourselves at a street corner waiting for a spare set to arrive.

10.30pm, we finally make it back to Sarah’s Uncle’s pad and YES!!! The key works.

In a frantic tizzy, Sarah and I change clothes, pop the corks, open the chips and New Years is ready to begin. Another girlfriend shows up, we watch Taiwan’s count down (Jeff has called me to wish me a happy new year on the dot-best bf ever) and 12.30am, we are out the door and onto the streets of Hong Kong. We pick up another fem friend and hit stop one 1) hip hop. We all refuse to pay any crazy cover charges, so we opt for the less crowded bars. I should also mention that we are all responsible and therefore not drunk.

1 ½ hours later, we head in a taxi to stop two 2) techno. We dance again and watch an electric clock counting down the other major cities. My eyes drifted to New York and I watched while dancing as the time passed from 1.30pm until 2.45pm EST. And on to stop 3) a chic bar (one might compare to the meat packing district) called Dragon I for some 70’s disco. Though our feet hurt, we continued to enjoy the music too much to skip a beat. Finally, at 4.30am China time, Sarah and I make it back, crawl into bed, and sleep (of course, I had to call Jeff who was in the midst of planning his own party).

Side note, the top is my custom made bustier.

Monday (afternoon): 12pm, the sun has woken both Sarah and I from our beds. We shuffle around ( I call Jeff at 12am his time only to be drunk dialed by Chung a few minutes later and wished a very happy happy happy new year).

The weather is perfect and we head out for some brunch at a diner. From there Sarah and I set off for an action packed day around town. We went shopping (mostly window-though I did by Birkenstocks-the cute ones for Thailand), walking around, Ikea, trams, busses, book store (bought some classics) grocery store, more walking around, and finally landing on the ferry to bring us back to our world, mainland China, Shenzhen.

Tuesday:

Blur

Wednesday, Thursday:

Same old, though I have made plans to under go Japanese thermal straightening for my hair. It’s pretty much damage free and will replace my Chi for 6 months. It costs about $500 in the US, but in china, is about $130. Don’t worry, I’m going to a Japanese Salon and having it done by the people who invented it. I figure, I’ll give it a shot and then I can make my morning routing go from 15 minutes to 5.

Tomorrow:

Work, yoga, Shabbat, Shekou

Saturday:

Work, yoga, louhu, xinjiang food.

Sunday:

Tutor, hair (for 4 friggin hours), yoga, dinner.

Random:

Jeff has found hotels for Thailand and it seems that our time will overlap with Frieda and Jochen-we will try and meet up with them.

Ranajit goes back to India for a while. I have sent him with a shopping list.

My birthday is coming up and we are making plans for a party (or several).

Will be going back to HK next week for a trade show.

Now you are all caught up.

Marc, Happy Birthday!!!