So there’s been some progress, as can be noted by my and our general absence from this blog.

First, my IFC (International Festival Chorus) Messiah concert has been postponed until the 19th of December. Apparently they’ve been having more and more problems getting government approval to perform Handel’s Messiah in a public venue, and it was going to be a GREAT venue (sorry, Chinese site only, but it does illustrate just how weird Chinese web URLs are: www.zxyyt.com, it’s the first letter of the each Chinese character as written using English letters). So what they’re going to have to do now is perform it on the sly, at an independent location, specifically the International School of Beijing. Apparently it’s a big deal, the Messiah I mean, and subject to lots of government scrutiny before it’s allowed to be performed. Either way. This just means it pushes off my performances and rehearsals a bit.

Secondly, thanks to my connection with the IFC, I am also performing at the British Embassador’s Residence, singing Christmas carols. We’re also “performing”/”rehearsing” at the Bookworm, a coffee shop in Sanlitun, the bar area of Beijing, this coming Thursday for either “Beethoven Basics” or “Basic Beethoven” or something like that, for their classical music open mic night. Who knew such things existed huh? Sanlitun itself is weird, and not quite my cup of tea. There’s this huge “Village” complex they’re building, basically a tricked out shopping promenade, with massive numbers of massive stores. We’re talking three stories of Nike and the world’s largest Apple store; completely out of the locals price range, but trendy, I guess. Um, what was my point?

Right, thirdly, I’ve actually signed a contract with Connections. I am their full time manager now, for the next year, unless terminated in writing with 45 days notice. The restaurant is for most intents and purposes ready. We’re just missing staff and suppliers. There’s still a big part of me that’s unsure of whether or not I should really be continuing with this, but that’s all part of some much larger general concerns of mine regarding my relative success or actually lack there of since we’ve been in China and the almost irrational and unreasonable way that I am treated or considered by my parents and extended family that I will not get into here.

Fourthly, we saw 2012 in theaters. This is Maria’s first time, and only my second. So in China, apparently, the movies are expensive as hell by local standards (35 RMB/5 USD on a weeknight, 75 RMB/11 USD on a weekend), you pick out your seats before hand and they’re assigned, if there are any English subtitles in the original movie you can kiss those good bye (which actually means we’ll need to watch 2012 again since there were lots of time when people were speaking other languages that we have no idea what was going on because there’s only the Chinese subtitles), and before the credits even begin rolling, the lights come on, the movie is over, and the theater empties. No staying for the credits in this town.

Fifthly, and related to the “Fourthly,” we wandered around Wanfujing a good bit. It’s about 5 miles from our apartment, and we wanted a walk, and I hadn’t been there in a while and I remembered that there was a movie theater there, so we headed out. We passed what the internet is apparently calling the “night market” which is this long city block of nothing but street food, most prevalent of which were things on skewers, with an emphasis on the weird and gross, like still moving scorpions, starfish, sea urchins, bug “pods,” various internal organs, etc. The place has really gussied up since last I was there. A couple of new shopping malls have opened, all selling high end durable goods. What we’ve come to realize is that brands that in the stores one would find only in department stores, for some reason have their own massive stores. They definitely like their things big.

And lastly, construction at the apartment should be finishing up relatively soon, within the week actually. Which means that for once, and finally, we will have a place that is all our own, livable and clean. Thank god for small favors.

And as a side note, we’ll be revisiting some of these things and hopefully that means there’ll be pictures!

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Posted by sean x. l. on December 6th, 2009 - 9:57 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: apartment, Connections Bar & Grill, family, movies, rambling

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As promised, Happy 60th Birthday People’s Republic of China!

I’d like to start out by stating that I think I’m spending way too much time with my family. Counting the time after we left our apartments in LA, we’ve been living with some form of family for over two months. I think it’s starting to get to me. It just sort of feels as if my time is not my own. My grandmother likes having meals with us, and they prepare them, and they do ask if we want to eat with them, but I just don’t have the heart to say no. My only reasonable excuse is that we eat dinner much later than they, so for the moment, we’re only obligated for lunch.

The point though, is that it seems like it’s just one holiday with all the family after another. More on the Mid-Autumn Festival by the way, later; I promise. And there’s so many of them. And Chinese people are so loud, especially when they all get together.

B. showed up that day as well. The city was for all intents and purposes closed and we thought it might be fun for him to come over. The majority of the festivities involved sitting in front of the TV and watching the big parade go by, then during lunch, watching the rerun, then that evening at my aunt and uncle’s place (more on them at some point) watching it yet again. All in all, we’ve seen parts of it at least three times, oh and I just remember that it was playing on the huge eight story tall TV screen in front of Tian An Men Square as we passed it on the bus. So make that four times.

My grandmother really liked B. As she put it, she loves anybody who loves her country. She is actually quite fiercely patriotic, though evidently not as patriotic as my uncle (this being my father’s older brother, I’m realizing that without names my relationships with people is going to be vague, but, well, I’m not sure there’s a way around it) since he is patriotic and loves the entire of history of China, even before the communists took over, and apparently my grandmother only loves it since then. Either way. She actually cried during the TV broadcast, when they tore at your heartstrings with recorded broadcasts of Chairman Mao declaring that “Our country is standing up now,” no sarcasm intended.

The entire broadcast was a tribute to perfection. Everyone standing in formation was even the same height. Apparently, they were specifically chosen to be only a few centimeters apart at most. They all marched in sync. to a degree I had never thought possible. They even turned their heads at the same time, in the same way, as the current president rode by in his fancy Red Flag Chinese limousine. Oh and I want to be the guy who gets to throw the flat. So in China, when they raise the flag, it’s not like in the States where someone just makes sure it never touches the ground. Here, someone actually bundles it so that yes, it doesn’t touch the ground, and then, at an appropriate, predetermined point, he lavishly throws it into the air with a grandiose gesture so that it waves majestically as it is raised. Quite a spectacle to behold actually, and yes, I want to be that guy.

The parade can be seen of as being in two parts. The first being a demonstration and procession of China’s military might, showing tanks and missile launchers from anti-air cannons to ICBM launchers. We think they’re empty though, and the tanks weren’t those proper “tanks” per se popularized in the Gulf War, more like those modern, “Urban” type tanks the police like to use, outfitted with fancy guns and cannons and missiles. The point being, they must have not been loaded, for safety reasons one, and two, so they don’t damage the rode. My father even speculated that they may have been made out of cardboard, but I’m not entirely sure of that.

Incidentally I saw a video online comparing the North Korea military demonstration to China’s, with the implication that they’re similar. I’d like to personally say that I at least liked China’s more, because of the second part, which was a demonstration by the students, the workers, and the “masses.”

So every student in the sophomore year basically had to participate. They’d been practicing for months, all summer, and even now with school in session, they’ve been taking sanctioned days of to practice some more. Now they’re coordination is no where near on par with the military’s, which borders on frightening, but it was neat to see so many of them gathered. They formed in what my father called “Legions,” squares of marchers 1000 people strong. And there were tons of them! I can’t imaging the numbers that showed up for this affair! And they all danced, and chanted, and held up signs giving praise to this or that, I’m not entirely sure or don’t entirely remember, but that’s not really the point, I just liked seeing them all.

Then there were floats, one for each of the different uh, regions, that China controls. Lavish, tacky looking things. Quite gaudy and frightening in their own way. They’re actually still on display at Tian An Men Square. We saw them as we were passing on the bus and they were surrounded by a literal sea of people. You can’t imagine the number of people all out and walking about on a Sunday night, looking at all this stuff. They had two eight story tall TV screens, and two more that must have been eight stories wide. Plus all the floats lit up. And 56 ceremonial pillars. And there were lights. And there were water fountains doing dances in the air. And, as said before, people as far as the eye can see.

Quite a spectacle, all in all. I can’t wait until it’s finished though so that things can get back to normal. People still aren’t really working right now, and businesses are closed. This is hampering my personal ability to get a job and secure an apartment, though it’s looking more and more likely that we’ll be taking my mother’s place. But these are all stories for another time. Suffice it to end with that this country of 60 has come quite a long way, has quite a long ways to go still, but I’m loving every moment of being in it. And I also promise that Maria will be back, at some point; we have been, to put it mildly, busy.

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Posted by sean x. l. on October 5th, 2009 - 1:50 am
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: beijing, family, holiday, rant

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So I think I covered everything that happened during the trip to China and that very first day we were here. We slept decently well, were obviously exhausted, but it was painfully obvious why my father at one point or another made the comment that Chinese mattresses are bad.

In the morning, Maria managed to find some “bread” and “butter” in the fridge. Read what you’d like into the quotes. We also got some eggs from the maid who helps my grandparents out. Impressively enough, I remembered that there was this park next to my grandparents building. I had gone there as a kid before I left for the United States and wouldn’t you know it, initial inspection via Google maps indicated that it may be a good place for the Maria to run. So we went to inspect further.

From my best guess, the park is called “Jade Park Altar” or something like that. There are walking paths all along the perimeter and bisecting it in a figure eight with a bridge, bridge indicating multiple bodies of water. There were lots of people swimming what looked to be the entire length of the lake, right next to the sign that said “No Swimming.” Same with fishing.

Lunch was taken care of by my grandparents. They’re quite insistent that we eat some meal with them. I don’t think we’ve gotten out of one yet and are even currently committed to lunch with them yet again tomorrow. Although today they did tell a lovely story about my Grand Uncle and his wife. More on that at some point, maybe.

After lunch we thought we’d tackle the Beijing subway, this being my first time ever on it as well, but we figured, subways are subways, how hard can it be. The system is more in line with a cross between the London Tube and NYC than LA. We had decided the night before that we would pay my cousin a visit at his office and at the same time check out the apartment to see if we would be interested in living there. We also got to see the Walmart, and I had lots of fun spotting the foreigners. I wanted to say “hi,” but thought better about it.

Michael (my cousin)’s apartment was quite nice actually. But what I’ve come to realize, though I’ve always sort of known it but had given it very little actual thought due to the temporary nature of my visits to this country, of which this does not count, is that the Chinese bathrooms and kitchens are terribly sub-par. They just don’t feel “clean” to me, no matter how clean I know they are. This can be said about my father’s current apartment, and Michael’s office. My mother had indicated that this may be so, and so had my father; they had said that no matter what, we’d probably have to renovate the bathroom.

So after touring with Michael, we figured on taking the long, scenic way home and started walking in the general direction of South and lo and behold, found a furniture “store,” quotes indicative of the fact that it was more akin to an Ikea but with everything provided by different brands and vendors. We looked specifically at mattresses (see above) and to my general dismay, found that even the most expensive mattress, costing in excess of 7000 dollars, could barely hold a candle to some of the worst mattresses in the US. I’m inclined to just ship one over now.

We also looked at bathroom and kitchen renovation stuff, which surprisingly may cost even less than the crappy “best” mattress.

We continued walking, failed to get Boba from a little corner stall type store that had no English whatsoever, got lost a bit, ended up back on the subway at rush hour no less, got tea when we first exited the subway thinking we could walk back from there, checked out a Coach store, having failed to walk back from there we then got back in the subway, again at rush hour no less, and ended up back where we had originally gotten on in the morning, safe in the knowledge that we knew how to get back.

I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous enough to attempt trying to order food from a restaurant, so we went back to the super market, bought some instant noodles and beer, bought a “Golden Brick” from the bread bakery next to it, and returned to consume at “home.”

To Maria’s delight, she found out that there was hot water still in the thermos that the maid had brought in that morning; finally, she had leaned how to make tea without use of the microwave. There are also no tea pots, no tea bags, and no tea balls. And there was no thermos today.

Today, we did very little. Lots and lots of research online, including me managing to update my Facebook status. More, or less actually, on this, at some point. We had a lovely lunch again with my grandparents, and basically just arranged for things to happen either tomorrow or over the weekend. So more on that when it happens!

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Posted by sean x. l. on September 24th, 2009 - 7:20 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: apartment, beijing, china, family

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We’re finally here! And there’s so much to talk about but so little time and really energy on my part to write it. We left Sunday night/Monday morning, one of those effective vs. actual thingies. We had a little trouble getting our carry ons approved by the airline. Apparently, there’s a 7 kg weight limit, which is just over 15 lbs. Now my thinking is, my laptop probably weights 7 lbs, Maria’s laptop weights probably 5 lbs, and then there’s the actual bag itself and we’re pretty much at 15 lbs now aren’t we? So I’m thinking, this is entirely, and completely, unreasonable. Thankfully they didn’t ask to weigh my laptop bag, but our two actual pieces of carry on, as in none personal item, had to be weighed. After a good bit of complaining, I managed to convince them to let me take one of them; we had to leave one behind with my father to bring over. It’s a little unfortunate because we had planned on having the contents of that bag with us, so we’ve been a little under stuffed while we were here.

At the gate, some kind of middle management looking official for the airline with too much time on his hand gave me a similar amount of hassle for the one bag that I was able to bring on. He said it’s too heavy, I said if it’s too heavy, how come I was approved by the lady at the terminal to bring it? (I neglected to inform him that I had wheeled and dealed my way into that one…) I think my logic was overwhelming enough that even though he threatened to get his supervisor to come look at the bag, as I passed him on my way up the plane we simply exchanged polite nods and smiles. So we were on our way, properly!

The flight was uneventful. Taipei was hot and humid, like mid 80s at 6 in the morning. It took us forever to find our terminal because their flight information TV screens scrolls really slowly, and Maria wandered around and got us some drinks while we waited. The flight to Beijing was uneventful as well. And I think they must have made some kind of policy changes at the Beijing airport but immigration was VERY easy to get through. It’s like they’re trying to make sure they do everything quickly. We got through the health inspection with no problems, although I found the infrared fever sensors neat, got through immigration with no problems and faster than I’ve ever done so before, got our bags (the bright green ribbon really helped, I’m glad we chose that color to adorn them with), and waltzed through customs with nothing to declare without any issue.

We met my cousin at the airport, got two taxis, filled them both with our suitcases, and left the airport. Having surpassed all necessary gate keepers, we had made it to China.

The taxi ride was, again, uneventful. I couldn’t help noticing all the young trees that they had planted, all the construction projects going on, and just how different the skyline really looked. Apparently, and it may be wrong, but there are 40 million people all trying to live here, so I can understand the need for more and more apartment complexes. But it’s perpetually building, and not like in the States where there’s some foreman wearing an orange vest talking on a phone not really doing anything; work is actually being done. It’s also the 60 anniversary of some National Holiday for the Communist Party? So everything’s being adorned with very pretty flowers and there’s been lots of military exercises apparently. There’ll be 8 days off work for these people come early October.

That first night we dropped our stuff off at my father’s apartment, then walked over to the local grocery store to purchase some supplies, notably shampoo and conditioner. My cousin went with us and he gave us the general feel for the neighborhood. Obviously, we had no good idea which one was the conditioner, but there were lots of very nice Chinese women working for the grocery store who tried to help. We also got soap, toothpaste, and Diet Coke, or more precisely Coke Light. My grandparents had been napping when we arrived, but were awake now and were able to instruct us on how to get our temporary residency cards.

We went down to the local police station, a monument to bureaucracy with shelves and shelves of exactly the same colored and shaped binders. The lady who helped us was very nice, though we had to wait a little bit because she was dealing with some other people before us who had a whole slew of issues to complain about. Again, and I think this is new, but like at the airport and immigration, there were these little buttons with cartoon faces on it, from very happy looking to very sad, meant for us to use to rate their performance. Since this was our first time registering, we needed photos so we walked half a block to a photo store where a very decently Photoshop savvy Chinese woman took our photos, cropped them down to the appropriate size, adjusted all the levels manually, straightened, and duplicated into a grid of fours to print for us. By this point, our temporary residency cards were ready, and we headed back to my father’s apartment to chat with my grandparents.

In short, they’re old. 93 my grandmother and 95 my grandfather. We wanted showers, and to spread things out a bit. We all agreed to get dinner along with my cousin and his wife.

I think I’ll end it there for now. I just got called by my grandmother to go and get lunch. I still need to write all about our adventures yesterday, but I’ll leave that for another time, NOT another day, and hopefully this blog will be all up to date.

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Posted by sean x. l. on September 23rd, 2009 - 8:42 pm
Filed Under :: china
Tags :: beijing, china, family, travel

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…and only 4 more actual days of work! It’s almost finished!

We successfully got our Visas, good for 60 days at a time, 4 times a year, so effectively we can stay there for 8 months even if we really mess up our longer term Visas; we’ll just have to leave and come back in to the country every two months. Supposedly it’s good enough to even just go to Hong Kong and back. Or I’m thinking we can use this as an excuse to take a vacation every two months. Although, ideally still, we should have year long Visas that can be renewed without leaving the country. It’s just hard not thinking about vacation! Even though I’m desperately POOR! But my credit’s doing real good now that I’ve gotten most of my debts paid off.

This countdown may actually be a little in accurate now, and there may not be anything I can do about it. My father would like us to travel back to China with him. He gets to the states on the 15th, and he’s “thinking” of returning “most likely” on the 23rd. Completely uncertain though! Apparently, and I don’t think I’ve ever had to do this before, I wonder if it’s a new policy, but we’ll need to be registered with the local police station when we get there, and it’ll be easier with my father, which I don’t doubt. I just don’t want to delay our departure anymore than I have to. By that point I won’t have a job anymore so it’s not like I can work some more and make some more money. We’d have finished our last US vacation as well. We’ll basically be completely ready but sitting on our hands still. Not a very pleasant proposition I don’t think.

Our “farewell” party will also be next weekend, sometime. It was originally supposed to be this weekend, but I guess that didn’t pan out. Hopefully, it’ll be at my boss’ home, with some work friends, and the few friends I’ve left in LA. Maria’s going to be seeing some of her last friends next week, and I think tomorrow we’re heading down to Orange County to see one of them. It almost doesn’t feel real.

I’ll need to see my mother, at some point, before I leave. I’m thinking next week, during the week may be appropriate. It’s all wrapping up really, and I don’t have much exciting to say at the moment. Maria and I’s conversations are continually and exceptionally wonderful slash insightful. I can’t really wait until we get to China and we have a whole new slew of stuff to talk about.

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Posted by sean x. l. on September 4th, 2009 - 7:09 pm
Filed Under :: pre-china
Tags :: family, friends, waiting

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So it’s getting close. So close it’s driving me crazy. There aren’t really that many things left to do, but for me, it’s like the last week doesn’t count because we’re going to head up north for a little vacation, and I work during the week until then and I’m sort of counting those days lost. Plus it’s hot. The LA heat has finally, belatedly, graced us with its presence with a keen ear to the fact that it’s many months late and now must make up for it. But we have a fan. Finally we have a fan.

What’s left are truly the logistics: Visas, plane tickets, insurance policies. Packing’s an obvious one, but I think it’ll all fit. And the unexpected benefit of moving to a place that so many of my family members oft travel between is that should there be anything we need, anything we’ve left, it can be brought over.

We are planning a short vacation though, up to Carmel probably. Sometime during the week when it won’t be crowded; we’ll go to the aquarium. I am also quite convinced that work will implode without me, but that’s between you, me, and the bed post.

We have nearly exhausted the available supplies of travel books related to China and/or Beijing in the local bookstores. I think I’ve mentioned this before but it may be time to seek out online resources, at least online bookstores, though in all fairness it may be a little late for that as well. There are only 3 weeks, 2 days left before we go. I hope Maria can handle the consulate on her own…

She’ll be watching my sister next week, for a few hours during the day. We think it’s a plot by my mother to steal some of her time away alone. I more personally think it’s a ploy for her to see me as well because she knows I’m the kind of person who’ll want to drive Maria; get the girl, get the son. I think I’m wising up to her wily ways, but I’m not entirely sure if there’s anyway around them.

I’m hoping that the imminent implosion of my work will cause them to beg me to work for them remotely. Otherwise, I’m actually worried about getting a job in China. I have to be careful not to fall into the category of “Local Worker” lest I settle for a “Local Wage.” I’m actually feeling kind of useless as far as my skill sets go. And I can’t remember how many people have called us crazy to leave our jobs in this down economy. Maybe we’ll win the lottery and the point will be moot.

We bought one piece of luggage today, and I’m betting we can get one of the three boxes of “Maria clothes that she wants in China but doesn’t need in LA” to fit. I guess these are exciting times I live in. I’m hoping for massive success beyond compare.

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Posted by sean x. l. on August 29th, 2009 - 7:33 pm
Filed Under :: pre-china
Tags :: family, job, vs media

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So I’m changing the countdown. It had been until September 11th, 2009, which by the way I’ve been horribly off on; apparently it would have been “Countdown: 2 weeks, 5 days,” only 19 days to go, “to go” being until I leave my job at VS Media; I thought it more appropriate to countdown to the day we leave for China, which, barring anything horrendous or tragic, will be September 21st, 2009, ten days later. So 4 weeks, 1 day to go.

And not that anyone would’ve noticed yet, but I’ve transitioned the blog out of Blogger and into my own private domain with a Wordpress install. As well as Blogger had been treating me, as a blogging software I actually found it lacking in certain key areas, primarily “post privacy.” Did you know that in Blogger everything’s either published and public, or not at all? Hardly reasonable, especially after discussing our online presence further with Maria, there are just some things that we don’t want all or some people to see. So I stayed up last night much too late getting this up and running. I was also much too tired to code my own layout, and you know, it’s been a while since I’ve poked around the underbelly of Wordpress, but they’ve got some pretty nifty new features, so the point is I didn’t want to go through the hassle of dealing with a brand new layout so I just too someone else’s and customized it.

But it’s a much more full featured blogging software; I hope Maria doesn’t have any problems using it. Same as before with the Blogger location, I will be tweaking and updating things as we go; I think a “Contact Form” might be appropriate, or a “Contact Us” page.

There’s not too much to say right now. Tomorrow will be the first day that Maria is out of work and not otherwise occupied with family. I worry that she’ll be bored, or that she’ll run out of things to do. I’m dropping her off at the subway stop near my father’s house, and from there she’s going to go to the Downtown LA YMCA to get a workout, then spend the rest of her day studying for the GMAT, looking over her “Learn Mandarin” book, and other logistical slash administrative stuff. I actually envy her; I’m really quite done and over with work.

And I just noticed that this Wordpress isn’t configured properly as far as Timezone goes.

We hashed through a pretty decent financial plan as well, whose details I will tactfully leave out. We also have a pretty decent exit strategy for this country, and though I am impatient, we’re going to stick with it. I’m a little worried about China though, especially after speaking with my father earlier today. He claims he’s just “excited,” but I think he’s worried. He’s not sure if we’ll be able to find jobs in China, and I think he grossly overestimates the benefits of the internet in procuring said jobs. He’s managed to shake my own confidence in our abilities, something he’s fairly good at doing. I suppose that might be considered a positive in some ways; at least he’s giving me, and us, pause, making sure we’ve actually got it all figured out.

I still think the best thing to do is to sort it out once we get there. Our resources will be greater, our feelers better able to reach further and deeper into the under mire of this new world into which we are embarking. I want to stick to our original plan. I’m just so impatient to just leave already! Maria and I did manage to find some websites online, based out of China (by the way, Chinese website are just horrible! It’s like, nothing you’ve ever seen before I assure you), that have some promise in some of the posts they have. It’s got me motivated enough to have updated my resume properly. Ah, and you know, I think this is a good place for a link, something I’ve been promising to do: Have you ever seen such, crowding?

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Posted by sean x. l. on August 24th, 2009 - 6:29 am
Filed Under :: pre-china
Tags :: family, job, rambling

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So it’s been a while since I’ve posted, mostly due to the fact that I was at first at my mother’s after last Tuesday, then hopping across the country first to NYC then Findlay, OH. To be short for now, because I’m exhausted, it was a very good trip, and I got to meet Maria’s immediate family, her best friend, and her cousin, which actually set my mind at east an awful lot; I had been exceedingly worried that they’d be worried that she was heading out of the country with some homicidal maniac. I think they liked me. I certainly liked them a lot.

I also got to see my Emily. I’m making the distinction here because Maria’s Emily is her sister, the one with the twins, not to be confused with mine, the one in NYC. I also got to see Charlie, Kimmie, and a whole slew of people I hadn’t seen in a while, all of whom I really wanted to see, so, again, in short, the trip was a relatively huge success. The only minor hiccup would be that my flight back to LA was canceled due to “weather” in Chicago. This accounts for why I’m a day later than I originally thought and much more exhausted than I originally thought, which is why I’m going to end it for now, to continue tomorrow.

Also, I think my countdown’s getting a little out of hand. I think the new date of departure is going to be September 21st, 2009. Not to say that September 11th, 2009 is not of equal importance. That WILL be my last day at work. Ah I also got to see my Sarah, again the distinction being that Maria’s Sarah is her best friend who lives in OH, and some other people, and it’s just been so busy I can’t seem to end this shortly though I ever so badly want to.

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Posted by sean x. l. on August 19th, 2009 - 5:53 am
Filed Under :: pre-china
Tags :: family, friends, travel

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