(no subject)
Well la dee da, aren't I just the worst ever at internet journaling? In fairness, the fact that I have to run a stupid proxy to see LiveJournal is a pretty big deterrant. And I'm really busy and important. Oh, and lazy.
So when I lasted posted I'd just gotten back from 5 wonderful weeks in Africa. Getting used to China again was really hard. Case in point: I'd texted my Chinese teacher before leaving and told her I'd get in touch to resume our lessons when I got back. Have I done that? No, and I don't even care. I figure my Chinese is good enough to do anything I need to and to banter with cab drivers, so what more do I need?
The spring ended up being really busy, between work, school and side work. We didn't do much travel except domestically (Hunan, all over Northern China, Shangers, etc.). Loads of Stanford people were passing through, so spent much of the ensuing months entertaining and reliving my early twenties, which is good since I seem to have forgotten most of them. Also forgot that I can't drink 5 tumblers of straight gin and not pay for it dearly anymore. We also had some fun times with the MSIndia gang, including many visiting from Miss M, which will soon be reciprocated, even if it means braving Shanghai's hair-destroying humidity.
This has definitely been the summer of my carbon footprint. I went to India for my cousin's wedding and to see the fam for 4 days in early July, which was great. My whole family was there except for two of my (American) cousins, and I can't even remember the last time we were all together. I had the msot fun watching my brother cultureshock after a decade away from the motherland. A week after returning to China, I was back on a plane, headed to America for a week, half of which was in Boston at my parents' place and the other half of which was in Paly at Sima's wedding. Jason met me in CA (he was in Missouri for a month) and got to meet a lot of my old draw group and friends. We got back and another week later were back traveling, this time to Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan, which were amazing. I also discovered that my ideal climate is desert, and that, actually, I feel pretty comfortable when it's 120 degrees out. Oh, and that the mix of Soviet and Middle Eastern is the ideal combination of my two ethnic fetishes.
We've been back about a week now, going to the Olympics, hanging out with even more Stanford people in town for said Olympics, and I even managed to get out to Shenyang and Wuhan for some work stuff. In a week we leave for Boracay for a week on the beach and then school starts again. So sad! I'm not at all stoked to start work again, even though I love my job. It's more I've gotten used to being paid just for existing, so the idea of having to earn my living seems somehow offensive. I'm also almost done with MA #2! One more paper and that pesky thesis and all will be done. Got some good feedback from my adviser, who is strongly lobbying for my funding so it's looking more and more like the England move in September 09 will really happen. As much as I'm excited to finally get the damn doctorate done and finished, I'm already dreading leaving Asia after so long. By the time we leave, the place here will have overtaken my house in India as my most stable living space since finishing high school. Also, I'm a dorky loser because I totally want to print out my peer reviews from the last paper and put them on the fridge.
Oh! I forgot the most exciting thing that happened, which was Lia's week long visit in March. I am so glad we met in Paris, definitely the best part of that semester. We relived the antics and had some new ones. Probably the highlight of the visit was when I burst into tears on the Great Wall, somewhere around KM 10 of 12 on an insanely difficult hike, demanded my mother come get me and then slid down a scary, steep, gravelly tower on my bum. We're nothing if not mature around here!
Life is, obviously, none too exciting, but so it goes. I haven't managed to kick my Marc Jacobs habit, but I did at least find a girl at the market who gets samples, so it's less pricey now. And good motivation to never go above a size 4 (US, not UK - no Posh Spicing over here). I really wanted to write more on here while Jason was in the States, but just never did. I feel like I should at least note things for my own reference, since my mid term memory seems to be shot lately.
Pictures from our travels (stans and Olympic stuff to come this week) are on my picasa site: picasaweb.google.com/ms.madhu.
So when I lasted posted I'd just gotten back from 5 wonderful weeks in Africa. Getting used to China again was really hard. Case in point: I'd texted my Chinese teacher before leaving and told her I'd get in touch to resume our lessons when I got back. Have I done that? No, and I don't even care. I figure my Chinese is good enough to do anything I need to and to banter with cab drivers, so what more do I need?
The spring ended up being really busy, between work, school and side work. We didn't do much travel except domestically (Hunan, all over Northern China, Shangers, etc.). Loads of Stanford people were passing through, so spent much of the ensuing months entertaining and reliving my early twenties, which is good since I seem to have forgotten most of them. Also forgot that I can't drink 5 tumblers of straight gin and not pay for it dearly anymore. We also had some fun times with the MSIndia gang, including many visiting from Miss M, which will soon be reciprocated, even if it means braving Shanghai's hair-destroying humidity.
This has definitely been the summer of my carbon footprint. I went to India for my cousin's wedding and to see the fam for 4 days in early July, which was great. My whole family was there except for two of my (American) cousins, and I can't even remember the last time we were all together. I had the msot fun watching my brother cultureshock after a decade away from the motherland. A week after returning to China, I was back on a plane, headed to America for a week, half of which was in Boston at my parents' place and the other half of which was in Paly at Sima's wedding. Jason met me in CA (he was in Missouri for a month) and got to meet a lot of my old draw group and friends. We got back and another week later were back traveling, this time to Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan, which were amazing. I also discovered that my ideal climate is desert, and that, actually, I feel pretty comfortable when it's 120 degrees out. Oh, and that the mix of Soviet and Middle Eastern is the ideal combination of my two ethnic fetishes.
We've been back about a week now, going to the Olympics, hanging out with even more Stanford people in town for said Olympics, and I even managed to get out to Shenyang and Wuhan for some work stuff. In a week we leave for Boracay for a week on the beach and then school starts again. So sad! I'm not at all stoked to start work again, even though I love my job. It's more I've gotten used to being paid just for existing, so the idea of having to earn my living seems somehow offensive. I'm also almost done with MA #2! One more paper and that pesky thesis and all will be done. Got some good feedback from my adviser, who is strongly lobbying for my funding so it's looking more and more like the England move in September 09 will really happen. As much as I'm excited to finally get the damn doctorate done and finished, I'm already dreading leaving Asia after so long. By the time we leave, the place here will have overtaken my house in India as my most stable living space since finishing high school. Also, I'm a dorky loser because I totally want to print out my peer reviews from the last paper and put them on the fridge.
Oh! I forgot the most exciting thing that happened, which was Lia's week long visit in March. I am so glad we met in Paris, definitely the best part of that semester. We relived the antics and had some new ones. Probably the highlight of the visit was when I burst into tears on the Great Wall, somewhere around KM 10 of 12 on an insanely difficult hike, demanded my mother come get me and then slid down a scary, steep, gravelly tower on my bum. We're nothing if not mature around here!
Life is, obviously, none too exciting, but so it goes. I haven't managed to kick my Marc Jacobs habit, but I did at least find a girl at the market who gets samples, so it's less pricey now. And good motivation to never go above a size 4 (US, not UK - no Posh Spicing over here). I really wanted to write more on here while Jason was in the States, but just never did. I feel like I should at least note things for my own reference, since my mid term memory seems to be shot lately.
Pictures from our travels (stans and Olympic stuff to come this week) are on my picasa site: picasaweb.google.com/ms.madhu.