The photo above is of a stone-pagoda-thing that I found while visiting my grandmother's memorial in Hangzhou, China. The grave site was one of hundreds erected on the face of a steep hillock, and — being the on-and-off adventurous child that I am — I followed the stone steps all the way to the top, where I found the pagoda. There was a rusty metal door, but it was chained shut. Luckily, the chain was long enough (and I skinny enough) for me to wriggle through the gap, and the Furry (see that gray mass? — more about him later) and I were able to enter, where we scaled a flight of stairs and found ourselves in a derelict chamber with arched windows. When I looked out, I could see the buildings around for miles. It reminded me of a similar climb somewhere in Germany, atop a vineyard hill. I hailed my dad halfway down the hillside, and my deaf great-uncle snapped a photo of us two hoodlums.

Of course, it wasn't till later that I saw the security cameras.

Anyway, this is just a preliminary sampling. And as I'm loath to reveal my likeness, finding some photos where I don't look like a complete doofus will take some time.

Just came back from the airport. Yep, back in the States. Everything feels different. The last three weeks felt like a lifetime.

FYI, the Beijing airport is China's only world-class facility. Cleanest floors, rooms, bathrooms (especially the bathrooms), and the finest assortment of duty-free goods…

On the other hand, seeing such a profusion of portly, Caucasian/multi-ethnic people is now slightly… baffling.

ONCE AGAIN, GREETINGS FROM TIANJIN, CHINA. I decided that the best thing about China was its relatively cheap clothing. Not the kind in department stores, but the kind you find on the street. Oh how I love street shopping. And a couple of these shops are very trendy. A lot of them blast dance music. And the other day, I heard the dance song "With Love" by Hilary Duff! IT WAS AWESOME!!

On the other hand, people here seem to have never heard of vegetarianism. I go into a restaurant, prod my dad into explaining to the waitresses that I don't eat meat, and then they ask, "Oh, does she eat shrimp? Fish? What kind of vegetables can she eat?" And then one of my great-grandmothers asks if I can eat chicken. Practically everyone is equally confounded and idiotic when I announce my vegetarianism.

In those instances, I totally felt like palming their chests and sucking the life out of those nincompoops, exactly like the Wraith, an alien race from the Pegasus galaxy in the science fiction show Stargate Atlantis, does.

In conclusion, being a Wraith would be really cool.

GREETINGS FROM TIANJIN, CHINA. I'm currently blogging from my laptop at a local Starbucks (or as the Chinese say, xīng bā kè) on Nanjing Road. As the post title suggests, I attempted to visit this blog earlier, only to be confronted by one of those ambiguous "server errors"… the "server is not responding," "the server connection was reset," blah blah blah. Well, I suspected something was afoot, and with the aid of iBypass, I confirmed it — my blog is a victim of the Great Firewall (though I doubt my URL was blocked specifically… more likely some other site on the Awardspace domain provoked the ire of some Chinese censor)!

So what am I doing here? Visiting my ailing grandfather, mainly. And while my dad is attending to his well-being, a Chinese friend of mine, Wang Zhengyuan (王正元), is showing me the sights of Tianjin. He brought me to all sorts of local museums, and took me to his university — the students in his English class were apparently excited to meet me. I even forget some of the things we did together. Anyway, he's taking me to another local university tomorrow. And on Monday, I'll be taking a train to Hangzhou.

I initially signed onto this trip a few weeks ago with the intention of merely accompanying my dad and shopping for cheap clothes. Due to my recent, intensified dislike of Asians, I resolved to bear the surfeit of Asian-ness as best as I could. However, unlike my last trip four years ago, I'm not constantly dragged around to tourist hives like the Great Wall and the Forbidden Palace. This time, the experience is a hundred times more authentic. Not only am I being guided by a real Tianjin native, but I also got the opportunity to speak with Chinese students my age, purchase whatever food I like, and walk the streets of a bustling metropolis without the dead weight of a digital camera around my neck.

At any rate, this trip has proven to be a true cultural exchange. It's a way of finding myself, in a way. Like my identity as an American. It's slightly disquieting to be constantly identified as "my American friend" by Zhengyuan or have others say "she's from America," "she's American," or "she's a foreigner." As I've never strongly identified as an American before, I've had to make some adjustments. Nonetheless, after my experiences here, I have to agree. I am an American. I'm not really anything else.

Well, I am a world citizen, too. But that's another story.

So, here's to the country that makes accessing my blog hugely inconvenient, and to the country whose portly inhabitants I love to hate. Good night, all. It's 9:22 in the evening, and I shall return to my apartment momentarily.

Until next time,
Jenny-fa, from Tianjin, China

P.S. I'm also keeping a mental tally of the all the obese people I've seen in China. After one week, it's now 15.

Sleep eight hours, wake up refreshed, cuddle Sasha, eat peanut butter toast at one's leisure, listen to the train pass every two hours, and watch Xena: Warrior Princess nonstop. Sounds like the ideal post-high school life, no? Except, I STILL HAVE TO FINISH THAT DRATTED PICTURE BOOK. BY TOMORROW. AND WE'RE LEAVING FOR CHINA ON SATURDAY, SO I HAVE TO PACK AND ALL THAT CRAP. It's not a good time to feel unusually mellow.

Oh, dear. My heart feels like it's stopped again. Cut it out.

And now there's a thunderstorm.