Passing the time

Whoa, has it really been over two weeks since I last posted? Apologies all around. Unfortunately, the Blogger mobile app on my phone has somehow changed a little bit, so any photos I post end up quite pixelated on the blog (and yes, I already played with the settings to make the photo quality higher, no change). I always have to go back in on the computer and upload a better photo (the same photo, actually, just uploaded via the computer). This takes some of the fun out of blogging on the fly while in a taxi or waiting for the train, and therefore the number of posts is going down.

There's that and then also I'm working like crazy right now to make up for my previous mess up which I posted about here. My deadline to get everything done is July 4, so you may not be seeing much of me here before then. When I'm done with everything I have to do, Michael has promised me a weekend away by myself to soak up some solitude and just write. I can't wait. I need it. As much as I need oxygen right now.

We've had friends in town this week from Macau, and we spent a very intensive two days playing tourist during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday. The city was packed with tourists (Chinese tourists, not foreigners) and all modes of transportation were clogged with people. We did go to Yu Garden, which is a gorgeous traditional Chinese garden dating back to the 1500's. It was a quiet and peaceful oasis in the middle of the noisy, crowded city, and a highlight of the week. Since it's not free (40 RMB, ~$6.50 USD on public holidays) it wasn't full of the tourists that filled the areas outside of the walled garden. I'll be back here on the blog again soon, but in the meantime here's me and my beloved in the garden: