Katie Goes...

Tonight is my last night on the island, but I'm ready to get back to Beijing. My job with the Events Company is now to start immediately (thank goodness, because I've got to make up for the lunch I had yesterday in the beautiful Yalong Bay at the Sheraton...but Oh Man, was it worth it. crazy good Lobster bisque (for which i am a sucker) and the most incredible open-faced ravioli with cajun shrimp and grilled scallops...wow). I'm on my 6th book now (i love vacations) and only just today managed to get burned. drat, i thought i was doing so well. curse of the single girl...can't reach my back. It's a unique experience to be in complete solitude while surrounded by hundreds of people (i guess that's China most of the time though). There are a few Westerners here, but most are Russian. It seems that Russians are to Sanya what the Japanese are to Hawai'i. The horrible, blasting, Russian music and bad Chinese karaoke, though...i could do without. the wat

after a long and bumpy ride from an airport that no one had heard of (it actually used to be an old military base a 40 kuai taxi ride from the Southern most subway stop), i finally made it to Sanya, on the island of Hainan, in the South China Sea . the moon is almost full and the water is blessedly cool, at 11:30 pm. i love watching the moon's reflection in the sand and then the water recedes, wiping the brightness away like a cosmic etch-a-sketch. to my left was offensively loud Russian music and to my right was a ridiculously bright and far-reaching laser show from a hotel at the end of the beach. good grief. Yet the little space of beach i occupied tonight was just brilliant. i could feel my heart actually opening up under the smiling moon and crashing waves. so romantic...in the big sense of the word. :) The room at the hostel is a slightly obnoxious version of the summer camp i never went to. so far, the best i can say for it is it has air-con. oooh, and I saw two wh

I find myself at the Starbucks near the Hospital, using the computer as I did 4 months ago- but how different I am now. I don't pretend to be an accepted member of the community, but I am constantly assailed with a certain awareness of how this is my home right now. it's not always easy, but I can get around my town by bus, subway and taxi and even bike. I've actually run into people I know on the street (which always blows my mind in a city this size). Going to the Great Wall this past Sunday was just completely profound! It was incredible to imagine being marooned out there at one of those guard posts (we had to climb a rusty ladder to climb over a short section of the wall), and then imagine having to build the crazy thing. just incredible. (i felt like an accomplished mountain goat by the time I got from one guard tower to another- man, was it steep...and no steps on part of it. augh) WOW- just this second I got an amazing phone call. The guy I worked with, wh

at the moment, i'm at the East Shore Jazz club, overlooking Hou Hai lake. My friend Jessica is rehearsing for her show tonight. I'm using the bar's computer, because it's touch and go these days for mine. definitely got a 1984 situation here. Yesterday was most amazing. After a lunch party at my house (and finally seeing Chaoyang park from the 14th floor of my building) we went to JingShang Park, which overlooks the Forbidden City. It was most profound, as is always when i see any congregation of greenery and birdlife. The part of the park we started in was built for archery practive in the Ming, or Qin Dynasty (i forgot, and i sincerely hope there are no Chinese History scholars reading this, because i am being abyssmally lazy and not looking it up. but if i stop this blog post now, it may be weks before I get the time and connection to do it again:) lame excuse, but anyway...it was a really long time ago. That made me think of my Mom, she did archery in c