Back in Beijing!

Happy 2011!

I hope everyone had a great Holiday Season :)  I spent mine in Taiwan, and I can't complain.  I wish I was back there again--love love love the night markets!!  I miss all the food!  I should've been a good Asian and taken pictures of all the yummy food I ate, but alas, I was not Asian enough--just got a few shots in.  But those of you who have been, know what I'm talking about.  If my grandma's scale is right (which I hope it's not), I gained 5 kg.  Yikes!  In my opinion it's really off, but I have a hunch I gained some weight since when I came back from vacay, the first thing my co-workers said to me was, "You got fat."  Of course my reaction was, "Hello, nice to see you too.  Would you care for some Taiwanese treats I brought back for you guys before I change my mind and keep them for myself?" Sheesh--whatever happened to subtlety? 

Mango Snow-a consistency between shaved ice and fro yo :)

Wax Apples--yUmM

guavaaa

Anyway, the fireworks in Taiwan were spectacular :)  I've never seen anything like them.  Of course they were that much more amazing because it was the 100th year anniversary of the Republic of China
(not to be confused with the People's Republic of China aka China).  I, unfortunately, did not have my camera with me at the time, so you'll just have to take my word for it until I steal some from friends :) I do, however, have some pictures of family :)

With gram, gramps, mom, godmother, and god-grandparents

Mom, Uncle J, Aunt Diana, Gram and Gramps

I've also got some adorable pictures from our first visit to Tsinghua's No. 1 Hospital where we are volunteers for Magic Hospital.  Essentially it's an hour and a half where we get to play with kids who are in the Cardiac Ward with different heart diseases.  At least for me, it was a good reminder of much of the life I was living as a medical student up until now.  A very familiar and comforting feeling--weird huh?  :p  The age range (2-14) was a little bit of a surprise for Allison, who was much more responsible and had an actual lesson plan, but I think it ended up alright.  Throw in some sheets of paper, markers, and one rambunctious kid and you'll get paper airplanes flying all over and some very cute drawings :D

Rambunctious kid--attack of the airplanes!

Allison with the cutest little girl playing "fortune cookie"

Adam trying to outdo the kids in origami...

My fav little girl--just quiet and observant

A real Monet here :)

Oh yes, and the article from the BBC finally came out about the P'yongyang Project for which I was interviewed.  I am basically reminded that I should not accept interview times past 9 PM because I will most likely start throwing in a lot of fillers such as "kind of" and "like" in my speech and apparently start talking about hair because it is too close to my bedtime! 

Anyway, hope y'all are doing well!  Shoot me an email when you have time :D