worst blogger ever...

So... yeah, I have realized that I'm sort of terrible at blogging. I never thought I would describe myself as "a blogger" but what're you gonna do. I'm going to try to be better. I also have realized that I'm not very good at taking pictures (well once I take them they're alright but the actual act of taking them is something I don't do very often). So here's an update of some things that have happened in the last week-ish:

On Jan 15th I went to a party at the American Embassy Residence! Crazy? Yes. The Ambassador to China has a son that's our age and Will is friends with him. Will, me, all of his roommates went to this party at the residence. The ambassador is changing with the administration change so they had one last party. It was fun, I met lots of people! Other than that I've been busy bouncing around and getting things like bed sheets, towels, food so that I can stay at my apartment. Things take longer than you think to get done and it's so cold that it's good to minimize the time outside.

Other than staying warm and running around things have been kept to a minimum a little bit. Partly because will has been sick and it's like 1 degree outside so I've been happy to hole up inside a bit. Resting up for the Chinese New Year! It's going to be fun. There's only one week (this week) where fireworks are legal (in Beijing at least) and this is the week. So people have been shooting them off and it's pretty fun.

For the New Year I am headed to Chengdu, a town in Sichuan. I had only heard of it before because it was where all of the news broadcasts came from when the Earthquake happened. Will hasn't been there either. We are going with a couple of his friends who know people down there. Supposedly it's really fun! I will get to see some Pandas and perhaps even hug one. At least there's rumors that I could hug a panda. I am trying not to get my hopes up too much. I've held a koala before so hugging a panda seems like next on the list, right? I mean, I don't want to make little kitty too jealous or anything but pandas are so damn cute. Except when they bite your face off.

I miss home... I miss my sis, and I miss driade and margarets and sage and bagels and barbeque and so much other food. but here I can get kungpao chicken that's so spicey it will melt your face off if you're not careful... and it's only 2 bucks. The dumplings that I promised I would eat every day have proven to be much more elusive than the kungpao chicken. Sad, but true. but when I get them they are soooooo tastyyyyyy...