:)

What month is this? Is this really August?

I've come to the conclusion that I exist within a black hole, and its vacuum travels with me wherever I go. No, seriously, how did it get to be August already?

So... I went to China. My wallet was stolen with my passport, my cash, my license, my credit card, even my student ID. In my first hour on Chinese soil. This could be funny, except not really. I spent hour 2 in the police station. At least I could amuse myself with the hilarity of the officers' facial expressions as my friend, who is Chinese, told them my name- which is obviously very far from Chinese. The trend of people speaking at me, and then asking why I was acting like a deaf mute, and then raising an eyebrow and dropping a jaw at "What? Huh? I'm sorry, I don't speak Chinese" continued throughout the duration of my trip. Actually, it only got funnier as custody (of me) was turned over to a friend who is tall, blond, blue eyed, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Perhaps the best reaction ever was on a bus. An elderly gentleman gave my arm a tug as I was standing on the crowded bus, so that I could sit in the newly vacated seat beside him. He seemed very amused by my dress which was... distinctly field clothing, and chuckled to himself as he inspected a corner of my obviously not-so-feminine shirt. I would sort of smile, nod, and offer him some of what ever the hell it was I was eating. I think it was Baodzu... anyway, as we neared my stop, my friend came up from the back of the bus, and poked me to let me know we were getting off. I asked her to tell him I didn't speak Chinese, because I hadn't had the heart to tell him myself. She leaned in, and told a now very bewildered man that the girl sitting next to him with a very Chinese face was not Chinese, didn't speak Chinese, and that she was sorry. He stared for about a minute before dissolving into a torso shaking laugh. There are other stories, but I'll save them. Otherwise, I saw the beautiful Sichuan countryside, and hiked the tallest mountain in China, Emeishan. There were monkeys. They were enormous. But Emeishan was an incredible thing in and of itself. On the way there, we visited Leshan, which has the largest Buddha, carved into a rock face, and walked in the Yangtze.

So the mountains of China are all outfitted with stairs for hiking trails. This might seem more helpful but actually, it's like the mother of all staircases, and it's hell on your knees. However, the biodiversity on the mountain was incredible. I keep journals when I travel, and I write in them religiously.

Excerpt: "The stone steps, some of which were recycled grave stones etched with characters, were very low, straining the knees. As we walked, I started to observe the wealth of ecological richness about us. Colorful butterflies frittered about in the tree canopy and up and over the path. Earthworms, formidable in size to snakes, iridescent, sneaking across the steps. What I believe were even planaria, glistening along, narrow bodies clinging to the earth as they inched forward so smoothly that they may as well have been gliding by a mechanism imperceptible to the human eye. Slugs as big as potatoes, lurking everywhere, but even so with a lovely camouflage encasing them to disguise their surfaces as fallen, curling leaves..."

So now I'm back. I got over the jetlag better than expected. Mom picked me up for the family vacation the next day, and after lunch on the way up, I apparently passed out in the front seat for the next 5 hours. When I woke up, we were at the cabin. I groggily got out of the vehicle, and was just coherent enough to drag myself inside and find my room- since my sister and I were sharing the room with the bunk beds, and she'd claimed the bottom, I somehow made it up the ladder and crashed for the next 15 hours or so. all in all, a pretty spectacular performance. Completely slept through dinner. It was great.

Maine was wonderful. My uncle came and he's just been diagnosed with cancer... they're pretty sure he'll be okay, but we played a lot of board games, he won all of them, and wandered around the coast. I went back to running and would go out every morning for 2-5 miles, eat roadside blueberries (I know, healthy, right?), and pick lupines. I did a lot of work on my prospectus. This was, of course, vetoed by my director, but at the time I felt productive.

Back at school, I still run 2-4 miles every morning, or at least 6 days a week. My vegetables in the garden are... well, they're stunted. I have a patch of vegetables so stunted by the incessant rain that they're miniaturized. I can make perhaps half a salad. At least it'll be adorable.

The highlight of my day today, which broke up the paper writing, was going out for lunch... and a little more. It was splendid!

Now, for your viewing amusement: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_TIOfUEudo

My awesome roommate found this and passed it my way. I appreciated it. I was on the floor laughing. Cheers!