Day 1 of Honeymoon

It's 2AM in China and Tony and I are finishing our first day in China. We arrived around 7PM and Cyrus picked us up and took us to our hotel, on Wangfujing Ave, in Beijing. Wangfujing is similar to 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. We walked around and I took a picture with some cute statues:

We had dinner at a dumpling place where it was RMB 38 (about US$5.50) for 8 batches of dumplings and 2 liters of beer.

After dinner Cyrus and Diane took us to Hou-hai (Back Lake), which is a man-made lake that the government created for feng-shui. People were doing their nighttime dancing. We rented a boat and drove around for an hour. We saw people selling sparklers on the side, so we pulled over and bought some. We also pulled over for a guy to serenade us.

Here's a blurry shot of us on the boat with Cyrus, Diane, and city lights in the background:

There are a lot of restaurants and bars surrounding the lake, almost all of which are very modern. This was the cheesiest one we saw:

Time For Some Pictures!

I'm leaving for China in a few hours so I thought I might leave you with some pictures.

Here is me shooting a gun with a SureFire suppressor, rail, and lights:

And here is a cute picture of Lisa from my phone:

This is at the Ozomatli concert:

craigslist.org!

A clinic keeps posting this on craigslist in the Jobs/ETC section:

Blind Subjects with Sleeping Problems Needed

Time Commitment: 4 office visits

Study Description: Clinilabs needs volunteers like you to participate in a financially compensated research study of an investigational medication for non-24-hour sleep-wake disorder in totally blind subjects. If you are blind with no perception of light and have problems sleeping, CALL NOW or visit our website to see if you qualify. This study involves 4 office visits to our clinic over approximately 3 months.

Eligible candidates must:
o Be 18– 64 years of age
o Have good general health
o Have trouble sleeping and/or trouble keeping a regular sleep/wake schedule

Eligible participants may receive:
o Study-related medical examination at no cost
o Study-related medication or placebo at no cost
o Financial Compensation
o Transportation to our clinic

I don't think they are having much luck finding candidates; they have posted this almost everyday for the past few weeks. Hm.. I wonder why?? I'm sure blind people have some way of accessing the internet and surfing it just like you and me, except with a robot that talks or something. But seriously, what is the likelihood that a blind insomniac is going to be online, on craigslist, and looking for a job in the ETC section? Maybe the clinic should try radio spots?

Married Life Update

Tony's snoring: I can usually sleep through the night without waking up. I'm finally used to it, although I do still have bags under my eyes (Tony!).

Cooking: I can make more than fried rice and tomatoes with eggs now. I've added spaghetti and roasted chicken to the menu.

Cleaning: Despite Tony's protests, I finally went out to buy a vacuum (he wanted to use a carpet sweeper - ew!). Thank goodness I did! I love my Sweep n mop, but vacuuming is so much easier!

Book Reviews

Foreign Babes in Beijing: Behind the Scenes of a New China by Rachel DeWoskin is a captivating memoir about Rachel's adventures during the five years she spent in Beijing. She writes about her time working for an American PR firm, where she is immediately a supervisor although she has no experience compared to her Chinese counterparts that report to her. She also comes across an acting job, where she will be a "foreign babe" in a melodramatic Chinese soap opera.

Rachel's experiences are engrossing. The people she encounters think that she is rich and wonder why she is not fat (since all Americans are fat!), and she learns what Chinese people think American stereotypes are for themselves - that they are lazy and follow the party line.

After reading the book, I did some googling and came across an interview that Rachel did for NPR. Also, it looks like a movie is being made by Paramount, directed by Alice Wu (Saving Face).



Another book that I recently read and recommend is The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs.

A.J. chronicles his quest to become smarter; he feels that his knowledge has been declining rapidly since graduating college (sound familiar?). He decides that he can remedy this by reading the complete Encyclopaedia Britannica from A to Z. Along the way, he joins Mensa, wins a spot on Jeopardy! and revisits his old grade school.

This book is filled with a ton of useless (or useful?) trivia. A.J. is hilarious, witty, and self-deprecating, which makes for a great book.


I can't believe I also read Pam Anderson's book, Star. I bought it from the dollar section at Book-Off! and struggled through the book. I really hate starting books and not finishing.

The R-rated cover is super bright pink and I couldn't resist. Also, I thought it might be interesting to read since Pam usually has pretty good columns in Jane magazine. I was wrong. It was so obvious and a waste of time.

Makeup Recommendations!

I went whitewater rafting for Diane's birthday this past weekend. It was my first time, and unfortunately, we didn't bring a camera (we learned that lesson from Kadra in Costa Rica). We rafted for 12 miles in Class II whitewater in the Lehigh River in the Pocono Mountains. The water was the color of root beer and we constantly splashed and poured it on each other during the slow parts. I guessed that I would have gross eyeboogers the next day and I was right. I didn't guess that I would have a disgusting rash on my torso from wearing my life vest too tight and trapping in the water.

Tony fell overboard and I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DIE. He doesn't really swim well - in a pool he can splash around for hours in the same spot and not move anywhere. I remember pulling at him for a long time, trying to get him back in the raft. At some point Diane's friend, Jesse, pulled him back in, but I don't remember any of that because I was so frantic trying to save Tony's life. Now that I look back, it wasn't really that dangerous; I mean, Class II is nothing. There were grannies and little kids on the same tour as us. I just totally freaked out. That's why I've been such a good wife to Tony these past few days. Because I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO DIE.

All of this leads to my new makeup recommendations! I bought Prestige Waterproof Automatic Eyeliner in Smoke a few days before the trip. It was only $3, so I figured it was worth a shot. I wore it on the entire five hour rafting trip and it didn't come off! Can you believe it! I also wore Missha's Liquid Eyeliner on the top of my eye and it also stayed on! Both resisted all the gross water that was constantly being sprayed and thrown on me. So if anyone is going swimming or whitewater rafting, you should definitely try the Prestige and Missha eyeliners!