Event Driven

A quick post from the airport that I’m about to get on the plane to head back to the cold Seattle rain.  I have pictures from Malaysia and Singapore that I will post when I have a faster connection.
Right now I don’t feel much other than disbelief.
我的脑子知道,但是我的心还没发现. ~

So we finally reached further into the mountainous reaches of Yunnan to the sacred Meili Xueshan range.  The tallest peak has never been climbed - quite a number of attempted and have either turned back or been killed. The Tibetan Buddhists regard this as one of the most sacred peaks and thousands make pilgramages there [...]

The closest big town to the 美丽雪山 is the famous town of Shangri-La.  We stopped here for an evening.  It was cold, and we were at a high enough elevation to be mildly affected by the altitude.  Still the scenerey and uniquness of the town kept spirits up.
We visited a temple area of the town.  [...]

As our group made its way out to the mountains we stopped at a few other sites along the way.  The first was a trip deep into the Leaping Tiger Gorge.  We hiked down and up in the day and lazed around the stony river bed for a few hours.  A great icebreaker for the [...]

Quickly leaving the bustling dirty city of Yunnan, we took the 8 hour bus ride through 大理 (Dali) to 丽江 (Lijiang), an ancient city deeper into the mountains of Yunnan.  However the city still felt a little touristy and we were itching to get into the rural areas.
We found a hiking tour guide who was [...]

I spent 6 days in the southerly Chinese province of 云南 (Yunnan) China.  It was a quick trip but a lot of ground was covered.  Starting in the capital city of 昆明 (Kunming) the first stop was the 石林 (Stone Forest), a natural phenomenon a few hours drive from the city center.
I was a little [...]

So that photo a day thing didn’t get any traction.  So here I’m posting a few from the past few weeks. Read the captions for more details.

It has been a quiet blog lately.  I’ve been settling into a rhythm here and haven’t been compelled too much to share, but figured it’d be good to let people know I’m alive.
I’ve been back in Shanghai and living with a bit of a slower pace.  Concentrating on studying Mandarin and just enjoying being in [...]

Yesterday was an exciting day.  Not only was it my last day at work and my first day in the new place but it was also my birthday!
I’ve included a few photos of the new place.  It’s pretty nice to move out of the hotel.  I didn’t realize how much living in such a temporary-feeling [...]

This is just a thought tangent, but perhaps you may find it interesting…
As I struggle to learn to communicate in Mandarin here I keep feeling as if I have struggled this way before.  It is sort of a lingering familiarity that I couldn’t put my finger on.  But today it hit me - learning a [...]