Like pretty earrings? Check out my new Goodies section! On the left, under “More”, or just click here.
Happed upon beautiful Tibetan earrings while scouring a fabric market and wanted to share my lucky find. 
More photos there, but just a few to get you started…
Carrefour and Ikea are lifesavers.
Meet Ernest, Dumbledore, and Bennington. We got them at Ikea. And Ricky has a Swedish apartmentmate. She says the names of all the furniture, and the meatballs, are all legit.
So we also found out that two things are still very popular in China: Bugles and Wolverine. Here, Ricky exhibits the two.
Lifestyle tip #032: when buying fruit at Carrefour, must weigh at fruit stand. Cashiers don’t weigh produce.
So we’ve finally made it! Right now, I’m sitting with Ricky in Costa Coffee because there’s wifi, and directly across from here is the ever-so-beloved 85 degrees C (which reminds me, I need to start getting used to the metric system: 8 C = 46 F + 81% humidity = feels like FREEZING!). We live on the western outskirts of Shanghai so we’re not really in the middle of the bustling city life, but we’re only a few metro stops away from all the hip happenings. We still don’t have internet at our own apartments, but that should be coming in soon. Many thanks to Ricky’s dad and friend Marcos for setting us up with our own places + cell phones + bank accounts… It was crazy enough with their help; I can’t imagine how we would’ve had to have done it without them.
Anyway, it’s only our third night here, and already I’ve eaten fried duck chin and pig small intestine (which was really quite tasty, but the texture was much like that of rubber bands and therefore a gross sensation to pair with the reality of their previous function) among other things.
Ok, this has been a grab-bag of my thoughts and experiences for the past 48 hours or so. I haven’t brought my camera out to play yet, so for now I hope you enjoy my not-so-sneaky webcam pic of the people sitting behind me.
that the world is my oyster. Who said I can’t pursue a job doing what I love? Who said I won’t get to travel the world? Who said I’ll never live near the ocean again for the rest of my life?
No one. Absolutely no one.
Fears about my future are playing hide-n-go-seek with me in as I count down the days before I leave for Shanghai. Most of the time, I’m sure about applying to grad school when I get back from China, and letting art+photography be a huge (and hopefully semi-professional) part of my recreational life. Sometimes I wonder if I’m aiming high enough, in terms of living out my dreams; it feels like being content and finding a job that makes me happy translates to settling when it comes to realizing my full potential and pushing myself toward all that I’m capable of.
In any case, I know for sure that I will only achieve as much as I believe possible.
