Okay, we post entirely way too much on here. But hey… our lives are full and fantastic, and while we have the time…might as well, right?
I went to Frank Ma’s Dinho Chinese Restaurant last night with the awesomely crazy/cool Yelpers for a Chinese feast. Mark had to miss out, so here’s a little clip just for you, my love. Enjoy!
Mark is in Phoenix right now and I miss him bunches! I would’ve gone, but I’ll be in Baltimore next weekend for my BFF Lauren’s graduation. She is getting her Master’s in Social Work and I’m soooo proud of her! So many graduations are on Fridays, and Mark and I are already missing work the Friday after next for my brother’s graduation… so, I had to forfeit the trip to Phoenix because it wasn’t in the budget or in the time-off-from-work plan. It’s hard to ask for more time off when you’ve just been in China for a month!
Actually, I feel like we’ve been so busy since being back here that I haven’t really processed everything we experienced in China. I’m going to make some time this weekend to at least privately write down my thoughts. People keep asking us, “So, tell us about China!” And we both sort of falter…because we haven’t had the time to put the stories together, to pick and choose from the many that never made it on the website, and to find the right words to accurately convey what China is like.
I think a part of it, though, is that our life is so fantastically awesome right now that we’re more in the moment than ever before. We had a wonderful time in China, but we’re having a great time here, too, so there isn’t the need to look back and go over all of last month. Because then we’d miss out on enjoying all of this month!
Tonight I’m meeting up with some Yelpers for a Chinese Feast at Frank Ma’s in Chamblee. It’s a large-ish restaurant in this big Chinese shopping center area and the owner, Frank, is always zipping around the restaurant greeting and talking to all of his guests. Mark is bummed to miss out, but he gets his mom’s amazing cooking, so it’s sort of a wash.
Last week, I set out to make some delicious, healthy falafel. You might have caught wind of that in Mark’s earlier entry. I’m not a great cook. I can bake like Betty Crocker, but cooking? Not so much. This, however, was from-the-box falafel. Combine the mix, some water, and some olive oil in a bowl, let it sit for 15 minutes, roll it into balls, and fry it. Not too complicated. Except…. for me, apparently.
I set out to make something like this:
I rolled each little falafel ball just right, and then I cranked on the gas stove to heat the oil for the frying. And this is what happened:
The falafel balls slowly began disintegrating! Until….
FalafelMush!!!
Bummer.
I had to dump it in the back yard.
I’ll let Mark do the cooking from now on.
Yunnan province has many different minority groups, and Lijiang is home to several, but primarily to the Naxi people. The Naxis are ethnically Tibetan, speak their own Naxi language and use a pictograph writing system- the oldest still in use, in fact. They are a matriarchal society, whereby the women inherit all property, can have multiple lovers, and are responsible for supporting their children, moreso than the fathers.
We’re at Mama Naxi’s guesthouse and have been lucky to experience Naxi hospitality and nurturing. Mama, who fills the main building (Bldg 3) with her loud voice and great food, has been awesome at scoring us the cheapest plane tickets ever, as well as arranging our transport to Shangri-la/Zhongdian today. She cooked a 7-course meal last night and we all sat around stuffing ourselves silly. And it only cost 10 yuan- that same meal would have cost over 100 at a restaurant! And it was so great. Picture!!
That was taken before the last dish came out. It was broccoli, wok-fried and flavorful.
Baba lives at the the building we’re staying in. He’s a much quieter, meeker, but just as hospitable, version of Mama. So, if you ever come to Lijiang, Mark and I absolutely recommend this guesthouse. But do try to get a private bathroom- the shared bathrooms aren’t very nice. That’s really my only complaint. Everything else has been wonderful here- great food, our laundry was done super-fast and cheap, all our travel arrangements were made in like 10 seconds and for a much cheaper price than I had budgeted, our room was even way cheaper than we had anticipated. It’s just been a great experience here!
First. My jeans.
I really don’t have too many clothes in my closet that have been there for ‘years’. Mostly because I’m like a kid who doesn’t take care of his clothes so they all get ruined. I’ll grow up someday. However, this pair has stuck around for… I think it’s actually been all of this decade so far so… it’s in the 8th year of life with me. This also means that it’s torn up. I started out patching small tears when they turned into large tears. Then they kept tearing at the knees in spots further and further away from the knee. Then the corners of the back pockets and a few other spots. These are the only jeans I’m taking on this trip so they have to last - not because I c0uldn’t buy another pair really easy and for cheap - but because I want them to come back with me - hence the heavy duty patches on the inside. At some point I’m sure the legs will just be completely covered in patches on the inside.
Lunch! Bagel Boys Cafe in Alpharettta, Ga. - Four Cheese Panini Sandwich.
So the Gear.
So those metal clips are great! I grabbed about a dozen and since my pack is about 10 years old (and rarely used) it’s not nearly as ergonomically awesome as Leah’s brand new super pack. SO. Mine sits poorly and it really doesn’t distribute the weight well and it makes your shoulders tired quite easily. These clips help pull the pack closer to my upper back and so it doesn’t stick straight out back horizontally as much. Anyways. My pack is considerably smaller when compared to Leah’s but it still holds a lot. Put the two side by side though and you see the difference - remember, the bigger one is Leah’s pack. It carries much more and she’s much more comfortable with it on her back. It’s all types of awesome - and about $180 more than mine was 10 years ago - and 10 years ago mine wasn’t really cheap either.
Also, her’s has an awesome mesh back for insanely great breathability - if you’ve ever worn one of these with a traditional back, or even a ribbed back, you know that you end up with your shirt soaked in sweat after a few hours of hiking and just generally carrying around the pack for a while. Leah’s is great and it makes it much more comfortable. Can you tell that I’m really really jealous?
So we’re packed. Basically we each have three pairs of pants, a 4 or 5 t-shirts, and other stuff, but really only about 3 maybe four different outfits to wear the whole month - of course, if we need to or feel like it, it’s not big deal to ditch an article of clothing and just BUY a new t-shirt or pants or anything else we need since it’ll all be relatively cheap to do so over there ya know? Some of the stuff we choose to bring simply because they are things that we can leave if we need to or feel like it.
