I missed another one!

While I was in Hong Kong, Matt's mom sent us some pictures from my friend Emily's wedding. Emily is a really close friend of both Matt and I. She is the little sister of one of Matt's best and oldest friends, and they have known eachother forever. Emily was my college roommate and close friend. Emily is also the link between Matt and I...If I hadn't met her I wouldn't have met him. For all of these reasons, and because I think Emily the most similar person to the buddha that I have ever met in my entire life, I was devastated to miss her wedding. Matt was too.

So when Matt's mom sent us the pictures, which was very nice of her, and I saw all of Matt's and my old friends laughing and frolicking around, I started crying! It as early in the morning, Matt was getting ready for work, and I think he was highly annoyed with me. He said, "Yeah, I feel bad too" in a very terse voice. Along with being sad about missing the wedding, I was also sad about all my old friends...people that are so important to me, that look alot older and that I am losing touch with. I know that is a natural progression of life...people come into your life and out of your life, it is natural...but it is more than just old college friends. I get the same feeling when I get pictures of my sisters from Rohit and my Mom. I love my friends in Hong Kong too...but they will all be leaving soon too. Kelly goes back to New York next January, and our other friends leave in April, other ones leave in May...Audrey leaves Beijing in a week to travel around the world...I know I have my whole life to be stable, but sometimes I feel like everything is so shaky, like quicksand. But then I worry I will be extremely bored if things ever slow down for me. I think too much! I am working on trying not to think as much.

I will stop my rambling now...Emily, you looked gorgeous and we are so sad we missed your wedding. I can't wait to get to know Kyle better in the future and I can't wait till Matt and I see you again. We will definitely be back in the US before May, so hopefully we will see you then. Congratulations! Your wedding looked like so much fun!

***(As a side note, it probably seems like I cry a lot. I don't. Sometimes I do cry though and I am not ashamed. It has been a hectic year and a half, I am entitled to some emotions, right?)


Emily and Kyle 


Ann and Liz, my old roommates! 

Our Second Thanksgiving Dinner

On Saturday, Matt and I went with Kelly and Raul to their friend's house for another Thanksgiving dinner. It was MUCH more relaxing than the Thanksgiving dinner we made for ourselves. To start with, the location was gorgeous. The weather was very San Diego-like...you know, "non weather", where the air temperature is almost the same as the temperature of your skin, and the air is neither dry nor humid. Basically, it was perfect and sunny and clear. The best part was, our host's had a yard...such a luxury in Hong Kong! Also, they had 2 maids, so no cleaning up! To top it off, Kelly and Raul picked us up in their new convertable! What a day! We had a good time...two delicious turkeys, an array of stuffings, many pies, and...brussel sprouts. It was my first time trying brussel sprouts, and I thought they were delicious! (Maybe it was the butter...) I am not a huge fan of pecan pie, but someone had brought a fantastic Bourbon Pecan Pie, with Bourbon whipped cream. It was amazing.

After our second Thanksgiving dinner, we headed back home and out to some clubs. After being in Beijing, the nightlife in Hong Kong seems like heaven. It is warm so you don't have to bring scarves and hats and all of those nuisances, all of the action is close enough to our house that we can walk or take a very quick taxi ride, I know alot of people, everyone is friendly, and there are a TON of choices of places to go. But we were tired from our marathon dinner, so we didn't stay out long.




John, Matt and I at Medina 


Matt, Stuart and I at Soda in Hong Kong 

Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

For Thanksgiving, Matt and I went over to Kelly's house for dinner. It felt really good to eat with them, especially since I hadn't seen them for a while and it felt sort of like we were eating with family. Matt and I had got there at about 5 pm, and Kelly was starting the mashed potatoes. None of us had ever cooked a full Thanksgiving meal before, so we hit a few snags along the way...Neither Kelly nor I had ever made mashed potatoes before. I don't like them, and I think Kelly's mom usually did it at their house. Kelly got a recipe out of Food and Wine magazine, and it didn't mention anything about boiling the potatoes, it just said to simmer them in cream, butter and garlic. So, we did that for a long time, and of course, the potatoes stayed hard as a rock for a long, long time! Meanwhile, the turkey was in the oven, but we didn't know how long it should stay for. It was 16 pounds, and the recipe that she had from Food and Wine magazine was for a 12 pound turkey. The recipe said to peel the skin off and then reattach it, so Kelly did that before we got there. Kelly and I hadn't seen eachother for a while, so were chatting and did not notice how nothing was getting done...Matt was in the living room watching the wedding crashers and drinking wine. So, Raul came home after work and freaked out because nothing was done. I guess he wanted the food all out on the table? The potatoes were still hard and the cream was congealing slightly, and the skin on the turkey had shriveled into a disgusting looking mass because Kelly had peeled it back. There was a minor -- ok, major -- blow out about how Thanksgiving was ruined by a lack of cooking skills. Ayayay! Lucky Matt, blissfully watching a movie in the living room! Anyway, everything turned out fine in the end. The smoke alarm only went off 4 times, the mashed potatoes were mostly smooth, the turkey was moist and delicious aside from the uncooked portions, and we were sitting down to eat at a very respectable 9 pm! Haha! Making Thanksgiving dinner and timing everything correctly is much harder than it seems! Oh well, you live and you learn. We had a nice relaxing dinner, with 4 drunk people, and a very exhausted and completely sober Kelly and I.

(I probably shouldn't have admitted all of our cooking fiascos...But, hey, I don't claim to be an experienced cook! I haven't cooked since I lived in San Diego, and that was quite a while ago!)

Despite all of the fiascos, it was great to be back in Hong Kong with close friends. We are going to do it all again on Saturday...Raul's coworkers invited us to their house for another Thanksgiving dinner this weekend. This should run more smoothly though...we now how to make mashed potatoes properly and aside from the that we are just supposed to bring a fruit and cheese platter. Thursday night was just a practice run.


One Big Happy, Slightly Disfunctional Family 


Kelly Mashing potatoes 


Chopping Onions is Really Funny 


A Sumptuous Thanksgiving Feast 

Exams, Thanksgiving Plans, and Memories of Grandpa

On both Thursday and Friday I felt nauseous, but Saturday my illness hit me full force, and I spent the whole weekend throwing up! It was horrible, especially since we have midterms this week and I had been planning on preparing for them. I had to miss teaching my little 11 year old girls, I was very sad! I still didn't feel good on Monday, but by Tuesday night I felt great...and was ravenous for meat. Big mistake! I bought two pork baozi (steamed buns filled with minced pork and cabbage) and a package of ham. This morning during my exam I was regretting my food choices of the night before...I had to run out of my exam because I thought I was going to be sick! I wasn't, and I managed to finish both of my tests. Luckily, the tests were pretty easy, much easier than I expected. So, it looks like I will continue on my bread-and-cracker-only diet. Literally, I have been eating nothing but bread and crackers. It is all my stomach can handle. The strange thing is, I still get hungry but the thought of any food with flavor makes me feel sick. I went and bought some chicken soup today so hopefully that will be more nutritious than just bread. Tonight I head down to Hong Kong to spend Thanksgiving there. I am happy, but I am also very tired...I am looking forward to my own house and bed and warm weather. Maybe foods that are more familiar to me will be easier on my system right now.

We are having a big Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Kelly's house. They bought a 16 pound turkey and there will be just 5 of us there! It should be fun though, I can't wait to see them. This will make it exactly one year since I met Kelly! It seems like I have known her so much longer than that.

Thanksgiving made me think of Grandpa Hardy...and I remembered a very random thing about him. Does anyone else remember when he suddenly discovered the hazards of backwash? I remember sitting in his car outside the Rancho Bernardo office, and Grandma was there, and he explained how he had switched to bottles of water with sport tops on them because it limited backwash. Apparently he had heard on one of his audio tapes that he listened to in the car that backwash is really bad for you if you drink it. Pretty random memory! I am not sure why that came back to me...Does anyone else remember that? Grandma, do you?

My Daily Commute

Every morning I have a 20 minute bike ride to get to school. This is getting harder and harder as the days get colder and colder! In a way, it is good, because I get my heart rate going early in the morning to jolt me awake. Is it because of the bike riding? Nooooo...the riding is painfully slow due to the high numbers of other bikers with various speeds and conditions of bikes. Some are old and barely working, others have huge loads on them: piles and piles of vegetable or cardboard or tin drums to roast sweet potatoes in, or anyother thing you can think of. Sometimes the loads of stuff is piled 6 feet high! Needless to say, I have to bike very slowly to navigate through this mess. The thing that gets my heart rate up is trying to cross the intersections...there are traffic signals but no one seems to follow them. Cars, bikes, buses, and people go as they plese regardless of whether the light is green or red. The only thing you can do is just push your way forward and hope you don't get hit. I have several near misses per day...it really gets your adrenaline going! When Matt was in Beijing, I had one of my near misses when I was trying to flag down a taxi, and it didn't phase me. Matt was like, "You almost died right now!" It is mayhem, but a lot less so than other countries. Progress is being made also. Now they have a driving test that you have to pass before you can have a license to drive a car!


Morning in Beijing 


My Daily Commute 

Kidnapping Chinese Babies and Crying on the Treadmill

Mom knew that I had been missing home, so she sent me some pictures of the girls. They are so gorgeously cute and full of life!! How is that supposed to make me not homesick!! Of course, I am glad to see pictures of their life, they are getting so old! By the time I get back to the US they may be fully grown. How sad. I am missing it! Right before Mom sent me these pictures, I had pretty much decided that little Chinese girls were the cutest things on earth. At lunch one day, there was a girl at the table next to us, and I wanted to take her home with me so badly! I was ready to go down to Guanzhou to adopt my own Chinese baby girl. Plus, the 12 year old Chinese girls that I teach on Sunday mornings are absolutely wonderful. Then I checked my email and saw the pictures of the girls, and all thoughts of little Chinese babies were out of my mind. Haha! I may be biased, but my sisters are definitely the cutest. The only thing that was missing was a picture of Maya, but I guess she is almost a teenager now and may be camera shy?

(I solemnly swear that when I have my own children, I will not gush and brag about how cute they are. Only big sisters and grandmas have the right to brag about cute kids.)

Mom also sent me pictures from a Thanksgiving a few years ago. At first I thought, "Oh, what a happy family we are!" Then I thought, "Oh, that poor Young Meagan. She has NO IDEA what is in store for her." I guess when Dad died it really scarred me cause whenever I think of myself and things that happened before April 5, 2004, I think about how "Young Meagan" never knew what kind of pain I would go through in the future. "Young Meagan" is a completely different Meagan than the "Current Meagan". Young Meagan also didn't know that what good things were in store for her...For instance, I had absolutely no idea I would be living in Beijing and studying Mandarin.

Incidentally, I have been thinking a lot about Dad lately. I jut read "Lovely Bones", which was probably a mistake because it is about a girl who is killed and what her family goes through trying to deal with the grief. Of course, I thought of my own grief. The girl in the book sort of haunts the family, but in a good way, and through out the book I wished that Dad would haunt me. Also, the Cardigansjust came out with a new album, and it made me remember how much Dad loved their "First Band on the Moon" album, so I got it out and started listening to it. Then even more memories flooded back, like how he used to play that CD everyday in the car while he drove me to school in the morning. He went through music phases...After the Cardigans, he was obsessed with a certain Social Distortion album. I forget what it was called. I think the Cardigans remind me of Dad the most because it was funny that he liked them so much, it is such girlie music! I love it too. Then, I was on the treadmill last night and for some reason I remembered when Grandma called me and told me Dad had died. I started crying on the treadmill! Maybe he is haunting me. Actually, I think I am just so far from home that when I think of things about home and my Dad it seems incongruous and so somehow a lot more sad.


Thanksgiving...a lifetime ago 


Makayla eating a dragon fruit 


Marissa at her birthday party 


Malini and her birthday cake 


Happy Sisters! 

My Weekend

I had a really fun weekend, probably the best weekend I have had in Beijing yet, and it s a good thing because after coming back from my wonderful trip to Hong Kong I have had a hard time readjusting to my student lifestyle in Beijing. On Friday, I was really craving pizza so I went to a restuarant called "Big Pizza" with my friends Lucy, Liam and Johannes. It was an all you can eat place, sort of like a Chinese version of Souplantation. It was...interesting. The pizza was NOT like what I had been envisioning. The crust was soft and doughy even on the bottom. They did have an interesting sweet pizza with cream brushed on top of the pizza crust and sliced pears on top of that. It was good only because the crust was so soft and dougy that it was like a cake almost. There was also a salad bar and a soft ice cream machine, just like a souplantation. It cost 38 rmb, which is about 5 bucks and is very expensive by Chinese standards, but we had a lot of fun and stayed for 4 hours! Eventually they told us to leave.

Saturday night I went to a party that my friend Johannes had gotten a flyer for. Foreigners could go for free but Chinese people had to pay. We walked in and there was loud music blaring and a bunch of Chinese girls sitting in chairs in a ring around a dance floor. The lights were out and there was a colored disco ball going. It was hilarious! All of us foreigners were separtated and as soon as I sat down there was an eager cluster of Chinese girls around me. Two of them were very nice and I am supposed to meet them for dumplings on Tuesday night. They were pretty funny, and kept telling me I was "hen piaoliang" (very pretty). From there I went out to some clubs with a few people from my class but my previous suspicions were confirmed: the nightlife in Beijing is not good. There are huge clubs but they play cheesy music and no one there quite knows what to do. It is like they are excited to have clubs and nightlife, but it is very new to them maybe and they haven't exactly figured out how to have a more sophisticated, subtle bar and club scene. I am not sure if that makes sense...Anyway, I have decided that I will save the nightlife for Hong Kong and enjoy the other aspects of Beijing. For instance, the funny party I went to with all the Chinese girls. Anyway, life in China is just on an earlier schedule than other places. People get up early and go to sleep early, even on the weekends. People are done with dinner by six and everything is quiet by 9.

Sunday morning I taught English to the little girls at the Haidian Children's School. Every weekend I say I am going to quit, but every Sunday I enjoy it so much that I say I will just do one more week. I love it, it is so much fun! The students are attentive and interested, and we read passages from books and discuss them. I am surprised by how much I enjoy it. The thing I don't like is the school administration, they are completely unorganized and they frustrate me. Plus, I don't like waking up early on Sunday mornings. If Matt and I come back to Beijing, I think I will try to teach full time.

Hong Kong!

I went back to Hong Kong last weekend, and took three days off of school to make it a five day weekend. It was glorious! It was so wonderful to be back with Matt again in our little apartment. I really felt like I was home again...and I realized how fabulously wonderful my life is in Hong Kong. I have a ton of friends, a boyfriend that loves me and an extrememly easy lifestyle. There are always fun things to do and placest to go and good food EVERYWHERE. I think I could live there forever. In Beijing I keep thinking about how life will be when Matt and I move back to the US, but when I was in Hong Kong I thought, "I don't want to leave!"

The first night I was back Matt took me out to a really good french restuarant, La Terrasse. I loved it, it felt so civilized after being in China for two months. Table cloth...silverware...clean plates...wine...it was amazing! The owner was from Brittany and I told him how much I loved the moules and frites we had when we were there. I think French people wonder why I love them so much...For me, they were simple, delicious and perfect.

The next days I spent having coffee with Kelly in the morning and then yoga and I stocked up on some staples to bring back with me to Beijing. I bought long sleeved shirts, some warm sweaters, little Japanese candies that I love, and microwave popcorn. Also, some couscous and dried lentils. Oh, and a ton of American magazines from the Navy Fleet Center. They sell magazines at US prices, which seem outrageously cheap compared to what they cost in Hong Kong and Beijing. In the US I don't read magazines that much, but here in Beijing they are very soothing and remind me of home and that there is a world outside of China. I read Oprah magazine every morning with my breakfast, and I have been rationing Yoga Journal in small chunks so that it lasts me for a while. I don't want to read through it too quick!

Friday night, my friends had an 80s party. It was pretty fun and it was great to see my old friends again. I didn't realize how much I love them all. Maybe the best part about the party was shopping for 80s stuff in the Mong Kok street market with Matt. He made a pretty good Bruce Springsteen I think!

During the days on the weekend, Matt and I stayed at home and watched Lost on DVD. It was great, very relaxing and I go thte rare treat of Matt's homemade popcorn. I think he is the best popcorn maker in the world. Oh wait, actually, I think my Mom and him have a tie. They both make good popcorn. I think it is the butter and the salt...

Going back for the weekend made me realize how much I love Hong Kong. I guess sometimes it takes leaving for a while to realize how you feel about things. Also, I miss Matt a lot. I hope we don't have to live apart again for a long time.


Born in the USA 


Kelly with her pink hair 


Not sure if these are 80s or just strange...