Return to Minnesota

In a few days I leave for my favorite place in the world. Stuart Lake in Minnesota. I am very excited and seem to always act like a little girl when I get the chance to go. As a bonus the people who mean the most to be will be there as well. It will be a week filled with fun and sun and games and swimming and fishing and Zorbaz and skiing and tubing and sunburns and chore lists and trac ball and cooking and reading and bars (the sweet kind you eat) and laughter and canoeing and fires and sailing and competitions and buffets and late night talks and mosquitos (am I excited about that?) and memories. The excitement seems to be contagious........

Minny-sow-tah

Ahhh back home in Wisconsin. I just finished up a week of vacation in Northern Minnesota at at family reunion. We went to a place called Evergreen Lodge on Big Sand Lake. We have been going there every other year for a long time. It is almost always fun (2 years ago it was tough because the weather was soooo cold) and busy. We swam, skied, tubed, fished, golfed, played tennis, biked, trivial pursuited, UNOed, socialized and played shuffleboard. I thought it was a great time with the warm weather, the great family and the lake. I managed to get a deep tissue bruise on my right heel (playing water football), cut my left foot, carry SARS with me all week and twist my knee. I did not get sunburned at all. Anyway so I am back home and putting together some things for my future job. Things are going well.

Back in the US

So everyone it has been awhile since I blogged. Internet connections were a bit touchy in China so I held off for awhile, then all of a sudden I was heading back to Beijing to fly back home to Chicago. So since the 25th of June till now I have been on the move. My brother and I did a week of traveling in the west of China on the Tibetian Plateau and the surrounding areas. We took a lot of trains, some really long bus rides (I had no idea my bladder was that big) and a few boats. The terrain was gorgeous and the traveling campanion was wonderful (my brother James). James spoke a lot of Chinese over the few days and learned a few new words.
The most obnoxious thing we dealt with was the "Hallos" from people. Everyone says hello to you. You may think to yourself: How nice for them, they just want to say hello to the foreigner. Let me tell you it from my point of view: Oh say hello to the monkey!!! If you say hello to the monkey maybe it will say something. You do really feel that way after awhile. I mean really all they do is say hello and if you say anything back they giggle or laugh. Obnoxious.
I have to say the thing I looked foreward to the most was blending in. I am really glad to not be blatently stared at anymore. I now know I want nothing to do with Hollywood. A few of my stories that I have not blogged on will come out over the next few days I just wanted to let you all know I am back in the states. I am now allowed to blog and use google without any restrictions.