back in the us of a

grant and i made it safely back to the us. for grant, it's basically been two years since he's been in the us. i was back last fall for a week.
we flew business class. yay for upgrades!! we had enough miles to upgrade one direction, and it was freaking AWESOME. if i can figure out how to do that every time i fly long distances, i will.
the first thing i noticed about the midwest: the flatness. coming in over wisconsin, illinois, chicago suburbs, everything was flat. none of the buildings rose above the treelines, adding to the flat effect. none of the interesting skylines of hong kong (mountains, buildings, etc) for sure!
the second thing i've noticed is size. the largeness of everything! cars, grocery stores, roads, high schools, department stores...
it's crazy seeing how big my brothers and sisters have gotten! erik is just about the same size as chris, and his voice is about as low. rachel is apparently in the midst of a huge growth spurt. mikey wants to be called "mike," and katie is more of a little girl than a toddler.
oh how time goes on!

i did realize that there is basically NO ONE in elkhart that i know anymore, except my friends' parents (who i wouldn't exactly call up as friends!). apparently we all got out...

summer's arriving

grant's on holiday. it makes me want to be lazy in the mornings.
we went to shanghai over the weekend for a tournament. BEAUTIFUL fields - soft grass to walk barefoot through, to lay out on... and gave me a rash. everywhere the grass touched me, i broke out. dang my allergic body. i'd like to believe it was some sort of pesticide, and not just my general allergies to nature.
the only thing off-setting the great venue was the polluted air. i'm so glad i live in hong kong and not in mainland china. we sometimes have blue skies. there, a clear day means you see an outline of a sun amidst a whole lot of haze.

we go back to the states next week. i'm ready to be away from the heat and humidity. it's a beast this week. we're going to be incredibly out of shape for singapore: de-climatized, jetlagged, and no disc playing for months before. love it.