You are currently browsing the monthly archive for January 2011.
Mercy, I had forgotten the joys of jetlag. I’m not sure I’ve finished very many conversations the same time I started them. I typically remember that I started and finish it off 3 hours later. I’ve heard so many ways to overcome and at this point, don’t care. I’m so tired I can hardly type! :) Heading to bed – up about 7 to hit breakfast before heading out to the Wall with the tour at 7:55. Hope you all have a great day, my friends!
It is currently 6:13 Saturday morning in Colorado and 2113 here in China (the whole country is in the same time zone) (Vietnam is an hour behind us, if you care).
I’m in Beijing and loving it! It is cold and it was a long flight. I have some jetlag but we’re having a grand time. I’m going to try and post some pics later. I’ve successfully plugged in my flat iron to my converter (not just the adaptor) and we’ll head out to the silk market shortly before dining on the famous dish of the city – Peking Duck. Or Hard Rock (live Chinese cover band!). The other will be tomorrow night.
Trivia: When did Peking become Beijing?
There’s so much to see here and so much I want to know. I wish I had a local Chinese friend to explain things to me.
I did learn this today. It is not uncommon to have Chinese young people come up to you and ask to go to tea to practice their English skills. However, it could also be a scam where they bank on you knowing no Chinese and they take you to a fancy tea shop and order the most expensive tea which I’m told could cost 1000 yuan ($100) per cup and they stick you with the bill. Not happened today 
.
Hitting the Wall tomorrow!
Facebook is blocked here so I’m trying to keep up. Love to you all, my friends!
I think that a big thank you is due to every teacher I have every had, from kindergarten through graduate school. They all, in some way, fostered a spirit of the joy and adventure of reading. There’s just something about having a book in your hand that is comforting, encouraging, challenging and knowledge forming. It’s very common in my family to see at least 2 of us reading something at any given time. Dad loves Westerns, one year we branched out a bit and gave him the entire Mitford series. He’s from a small town. Mom and Dad both loved it. When we go shopping, Dad sits in the car or the food court and reads a book until we’re ready to go.
Mom received a Kindle for Christmas and has decided to go back to the classics. She’s loving it, especially since Dad cheated and gave it to her several months in advance and they were sneaky and just didn’t tell us (we all gave her accessories for Christmas). I remember the local public library doing the summer reading program. They would have a drawing contest for a bookmark and I won one year. I can’t imagine since my drawing skills are far from awesome. It was a worm wearing a mortarboard coming out of an apple. I’m sure it’s in a scrapbook somewhere. I remember Mom suggesting books and me finding myself lost in the worlds of Romona Quimbly or a Mexico I’d never yet imagined. She may not realize it, but I would bet my love of reading is part of the basis for my love of travel.
The last few years I’ve set a goal of how many books to read, thanks to my friend, Rachel, who has done the same. 2009 was 40 and I made 36 1/2. 2010 was 30 and I made 46. 2011 had a goal of 25 with the addition of the goal to watch 15 documentaries. I almost have 2 on the list thus far.
I thought I was doing so well until a friend posted on FB that she read 130+ books last year. Awesome! I’m content with my small number and am certain I will pass it but it’s fun for me to have a goal. I’m competitive with myself and so read I shall. I have a variety of things on my list and keep it updated as I go on FB. I shall post it periodically here as well as on the new site another friend, Lora, suggested – www.goodreads.com. I’d love to hear about your reading, any suggestions (as long as they aren’t scarey, I am a chicken) or any memories you have of reading and why you read.
I was saddened one day to hear from a coworker how he and his wife use reading as a punishment for their children and I pray that someday the whole family will see reading as a joy.
What are you reading right now?
I’m sitting on my couch in the dark as the morning light filters through the curtains and I listen to the few cars drive along a nearby ‘shortcut’ through town. I fell asleep on the couch last night watching my Netflix NCIS on my laptop. I woke up around 230 long enough to wash my face and move to my own bed.
Now I’m back on my couch where I’ve watched some more NCIS, done some facebooking, emailing, BBCing and such. I checked to see if I needed to mail any cds or dvds from my swapa accounts (really cool if you don’t know about them). On and on. I think I’ll do some blog catching up now and then move along to more NCIS before I put it back into the mail this afternoon.
Nothing exciting here. Looking at making a second cuppa tea and washing dishes. Yup, that’s exciting as it gets as I await what I hope will arrive in today’s mail – my photo order so that I can start scrapping like a maniac.
So, as I try to get back into blogging, I wouldn’t say this is one of my better entries, but sometimes you just have to get out there and do something to get back into the groove. Look out groove – here I come!
