patterns

honolulu, hawaii 1.10.11

tokyo, japan 1.25.11

chiangmai, thailand 1.28.11

harbin, china 2.17.11

traveling through 4 different countries does somethin to you.. you start to see patterns (or patterns that aren't patterns at all haha). here's my list of "patterns" i've observed from hawaii, japan, thailand, and china

driving pattern: right, left, left, right (side of road)
toilet paper pattern: in, in, out, out (of) toilet
ventilation pattern: fan on, heater on, ac on, humidifier on
utensil pattern: fork, chopstick, fork/spoon, chopstick
greeting pattern: aloha, konnichiwa, sawadeekahhh, ni hao
weather pattern: perfect, brisk, hot, "little" cold
price of fruit pattern: expensive, more expensive, less expensive, cheap
population pattern: moderate, crowded, a little crowded, very crowded
drinkable water pattern: tap, tap, bottle, bottle
beautiful skin pattern: dark, white, dark, white

icy black snow

after about 21 hours of traveling, waiting, and more traveling i finally arrived home in harbin yesterday! it feels like it was just yesterday and gazillion years that i've been back. it's good to be in a familiar place again and see some long lost teammates that stayed behind in harbin :) a few random things i've noticed/pondered:

the temperature is SHOCKINGLY not as cold as i imagined.. maybe it's a sign of spring or just a short "heat wave"- it was about 12 degrees F today and anything over 0 seems warm at this point. i didn't wear my thickly padded long underwear or a hat or my long down coat... and i was okay.. maybe even a little hot! so strange.

it also seems like harbin got a bit dirtier... the streets are covered in what i'd like to call "black ice". you'd think it's nice fresh black pavement but it's actually just a layer of dirt over layers of packed icy snow. yesterday was the lantern festival and the last day of the spring festival, which might explain for all the firework/cracker litter and the thick chunky fog/pollution that hangs over the city.

today i took a trip to "the esplanade" (a indoor market that sells everything under the sun) and "market street" where i bought hearty foods and saw my regular vendors working :) i hope one day i can say more than "how much is this?", "happy chinese new years!", "today is not cold", "i went to hawaii, japan, and thailand...", "which one is better", "thank you, see you again!"... "

i miss color, thai food, warmer weather/sunshine/blue clear skies, awesome new/old friends, amazing worship/stories, and having a roommate... but i'm hopeful for this second new semester and glad to be back home in harbin :)

trying to capture the icy black snow covered road

dressing as if it's mid-november weather ;)