...and then they SUCKED OUT OUR BRAINS!

So we had to wait in the plane for a half hour while the dudes dressed up like the cast of E.T. invaded our ship, and shot everybody in the head with a laserbeam...one by one. Check it out!
My favorite part? When he leans over and zaps the dude in the head, point blank. ZAP!

北京欢迎你！(part 2)

Coming back to Beijing has been interesting. Upon learning that I was coming back, most friends and family asked if I was nervous (or insinuated that they would be, put in the same position). Of course, my answer was a quick and dismissive "no." But I started thinking about it: Why wasn't I a bit nervous? Foreign country, different customs, different language, different foods, different system of government, restricted press... What makes me so comfortable here?
Easy answer: I have dark hair, squinty eyes, an affinity for Chinese food, adept chopstick skills, and have spent half of the last five years of my life living in China. It's like moving from Boise to Provo. (Though I think I might have lived in China longer than I've lived in Provo.)

by this time today, i'll be in vancouver

there's wireless internet at the Burger King in the Shanghai Pudong airport. ah, the advances of modern technology! i'm writing this post for the sole purpose of posting one picture: eat your hearts out, america.

Hainan (part three): Sun and Moon Bay

sun and moon bay. highly recommended. try finding a picture. it's called riyue wan. or riyue bay. couple thousand meters of pristine white sand beach and nothing but me and matt riding the waves for an entire afternoon. we bought some chinese brand-name sunscreen and definitely got our money's worth, cuz we both got a bit toasty. not as toasty, i suppose, as if we hadn't bought any, but we've a nice touch of color to our faces now. best part of the day: taking a nap on a beach all by myself. matt wandered off to look for some shells. funnest part of the day: trying to wave down a bus to pick up a couple of hitchhiking foreigners with dripping wet bodies, boards, and dollar bills. :)

Hainan (part two): Sanya

Sanya. if there's ever an extra four thousand dollars lounging in my wallet just waiting to be spent, this is on the top of my list. i figure that's how much it would cost to fly here, live it up for about two weeks, and get back with a few pennies. though, i could live like a miser, sleep on the beach (very tempting, even with sufficient funds), and get away with it for about two thousand. oh. that's for two people, in case you were wondering. i was thinking honeymoon. we went to the "big east sea bay" (dadonghai wan) yesterday and decided we wanted to go boogie boarding for the few hours before sundown. we got the guys to rent us two boards for ten RMB a piece (again, with the chinese prices...that's about a buck forty), but didn't have enough money to cover the security fee. in the end, they agreed to giving us the boards in exchange for my flip-flops, matt's shoes, and both our t-shirts. quite fair. we decided not to rip them off (my flip flops were the most expensive...about four USD) and brought back the boards. what nice dudes!