Hahaha...Before my birthday (Friday - Leap Day!), Jerry and I shared an "early" birthday meal at Paul's Steak and Eggs! SO, SO, SO, GOOD! I got a Chicken Cajun Sub, potato skins, Jerry had a breakfast sandwich and a meatball sub....MMMM....I wish I brought my camera but I was too hungry to consider that at the time. I live in the 5th ring area of Beijing and Paul's is in the 3rd ring - near the Friendship Store!

On my actual birthday, I went to the HouHai (Back seas) area of Beijing to celebrate my birthday with two friends, Rodin and Corrina. We walked, talked and ate traditional Beijing snacks! Then went shopping! It was a fun day! Then I had coffee, cake and birthday flowers with Bond and Jerry! :) Hey, I should celebrate the whole month! LOL!

HouHai

Aye, to be a child again!

Birthday cake and flowers! (My eyes look sleepy due to some weird skin "chapping" on my eyelids and corner of my eyes! It stings!)

Hello again...

What's new since I last posted? Hmm..let me think. I went to Dalian, China (so nice to be by the sea!) in October for China's National Holiday. Then had a series of holiday events and home-parties such Halloween "horror movie" night, Thanksgiving dinner at Paul's Steak and Eggs, "Something Red" gift exchange, Christmas turkey dinner and Chinese New Year's! I'm pretty partied-out at the moment! My friend, Allen, also created "Euro Club" and we had a weekly dinner to practice our Native European/Western Languages. The intended goal was to practice another Western language and not continuously speak our native languages but that wasn't always the case! Its now 2008...and I hope it will be an awesome year for everyone! It really hurt my motivation to keep this blog updated when I realized that I needed to use a proxy to view it...why put a firewall on someone's travel diaries?

Here's some photos:

Dalian, China

A four day tour around the beautiful coastal city of Dalian! Took a rather "rip-off" taxi tour around the local beaches, then went to the Aquariums (3 of them in one "rip-off" package). I really enjoyed the aquariums and was able to see Emperor Penguins and sea turtles! I loved all the animals there! Just wish they had a more natural living environment - unless, of course, they couldn't take care of themselves in the wild. The area were these aquariums were located felt like the Santa Cruz Beach and Boardwalk! Went to the "Golden Pebble Beach" where there is a Disneyland knock-off called "Happy Kingdom." Many people take their wedding photos there, especially at "The Sea of Love" park! Really beautiful stone figures (such as "dinosaur drinking" rock and "turtle looking for son" rock) and blue waters. There was this young-looking animated and energetic lady who was in her 60's! She was MY IDOL! I hope to have the stamina to travel the world, as she is, when I reach her age! There is also a "Russian Street."