Summer Vacation: Month 1, Part 1

In the words of Ron Artest: "I want to thank err'body in ma hood!!!"  HAH, sorry, I got a wee bit distracted by the game (YAY LAKERS!!!).  Anyhoo, time flies and the first month of my summer vacation is already over.  I have a million and one pictures documenting the first month but after extensive editing, I've managed to cut it down to 170 pictures.  I didn't want to overwhelm you with one ginormous post so I decided to break the pictures down into three parts.  Part 1: The Personal Stuff..sorta.  

Changan Street right before my grandparents' house:

(Its been six years since I last visited Beijing.  Just so happens to be the six years when the city was working overtime for the 2008 Olympics.  It took me a good minute to get used to all the new buildings that were just empty plots of land during my last visit.)


Ours dogs (Bobo, Doudou, Coco, and Mei Mei):

(Bobo is a scaredy cat and hates men - basically Olivia as a dog.)

(DouDou means "beans" in Chinese...my mom got him and his sister from her friend and she decided to name  them Coco and Doudou or "coco beans".  Cute, right?  LOL)

(Coco is in desperate need of a haircut but is my favorite out of the bunch.  I was ready to stuff her in my suitcase but I realized she would probably annoy Libby to death so decided against it at the last minute.)

(Mei Mei is old and grouchy but is still adorable, esp when he gets all protective of Coco.)


First thing my dad bought me when we landed in Beijing:

(He knows me so well ^.^  My absolute favorite treat of all time.  No idea what these berries are called in English but they're dipped in sugar and oh-so-delicious.  These used to be available only during the winter but thanks to genetic engineering, they're now available all year-round!  My mouth is watering as I type...)


My cousin's wedding:

(Chinese weddings are completely different from American weddings - the reception and ceremony are combined into one big lunch shindig, the bride and groom receive only monetary gifts, and the groom and his side of the family have to go "steal" the bride from her parents' house before they can arrive together at the reception.  Hence the pic of my cousin running out of the building with his wife in his arms...and my big, fat, cheesy smile cus I think that was right before we were about to break the doors down at the bride's parents' place.  Not literally..more like monetary bribes and maybe just a little pushing.)

(He was our punching bag growing up...whenever my cousins and I got into trouble as kids, we would always pin the blame on him.  Poor kid.  Needless to say, I got a little weepy during the ceremony.)


Louboutins by the harbor:

(Yes, Loubs are all I ever think about...even when I'm on the other side of the world.)



Saving the world, one kitty at a time:

(Long story short: Some irresponsible retard left this poor kitten with a street vendor and asked the lady to do what she will with it.  Fast forward to 9pm, I'm walking home with my cousin and I see this little cutie popping her head out of the paper bag so of course I stop to ooohhh and awww over it.  The street vendor told me if she couldn't find a home for the kitten by the end of the night, she would probably have to abandon her as well.  After about an hour of calling everyone we knew to see if they would be willing to take the kitten in, I resorted to begging strangers passing by.  I was finally able to convince a teenager that cats are easy to take care of PLUS he could score lots of chicks with this cutie or he could give the kitten to his gf as a gift ^.^    When he agreed, I wanted to smother him with hugs and kisses but I decided against it cus I didn't want to scare the poor kid away.  Hope the boy and kitten are doing well!!)

This post took waaaaaaaaaaay longer than expected so I'll have to upload the other pics tomorrow :P