Awesome, fun China!

Go ahead, have your drive-up windows, we have KFC delivery!

And Starbucks!

and cool city parks that are super safe!

Cuz

I borrowed Mimi's Facebook account the other day so I could anonymously stalk people, and ran across this photo on one of my cousin's Facebook pages.

These are my cousins on my mom's side of the family, the ones that were born at the time, that is. It was taken at Christmas on the bayou in Texas where my grandparents were living at the time.

I'm the blonde in the middle wearing the blue jumper.

Facebook and even Blogspot are blocked by the Great Firewall of China, so I have to get on a VPN to view them. The VPN is usually super-slow, which is why I haven't updated this blog in such a long time (and is why I don't do Facebook...that and the fact that I don't have time for one more thing.)

Speaking of yawning gaps...

Mimi loungeth under a chair.

She would be so embarrassed if she knew I posted these pics! :-)

(Dear people who think I think Mimi would really be embarrassed, I'm KIDDING!)

The yawning gap between rich and poor

Louis Vuitton suitcase, an ostentatious monstrosity on Nanjing Road West in Shanghai.

Pathetic suburbs on the outskirts of Shanghai where the poor migrants can afford to live.

Welcome to Shanghai, the real Shanghai. For all I knew, the real Shanghai was all glitz and glamour. But today I took a subway out to the "suburbs," and saw the other real Shanghai. Both extremes exist. Seems like everyone here is really rich or really poor.

Faster than a speeding bullet

The first time I saw one of these trains swoosh past a few feet from where I was standing, I couldn't breathe. I stood frozen on the steps of the train platform as one of these trains sped by on its way to another city. These trains are airplane fast. I love 'em.

The Plane Ride

Been traveling in Thailand....

I’m getting dirty looks but it’s not my fault.

There are two empty seats on the plane, and they are between the window and me. Everyone else is crammed in like sardines. I am no fool; I stretch out across three seats to take a nap. I pull the blanket over my head hoping it will deflect the glares of fellow passengers (who are probably wishing about now that they had prayed about this plane trip as much as I did).

A Chinese lady up ahead is throwing up. So many Chinese get motion sickness, as do I. I take her husband some Dramamine and quietly explain in Chinese what it is. He is so trusting – and desperate – that he takes this foreign medicine from me. The lady takes the medicine and sleeps like a baby for the rest of the trip. (In case you are wondering, they don’t want my seats because they have bulkhead seats where they can stretch their legs out.)

Now the other passengers, some Caucasians, glare at me because I spoke Chinese fairly fluently. Now they really hate me. You know, you get criticized if you don’t learn a language, but then you learn one and people think you are trying to show off.

Well, think what they may, I just couldn’t let that lady throw up the entire trip. I know what it feels like to suffer. I was sick on a 13-hour bus one time and no one should have to suffer through that misery if a cure is handy.

I’ve been to Thailand. Again. I was there in September too. No, not the beach. I sat within the same four walls of the same meeting room for three full weeks of the last seven. I am meetinged out. Being in Thailand only makes me like China more.

When I get back to China Mimi will go berserk and act like she can’t live without me.

This is my life as of late.