briefly

Watch out Howie Cosell: Charles Westerman is the new Voice of the Lobos baseball team and sportswriter for the Platte County Record Times, and he's pushing 5'11". I basically have to avoid him for the rest of my life because of all the sitting on and being tickled I have coming.

I traveled from Shenzhen, the border city with Hong Kong, to Xiamen, the island where Abby lived and studied during her semester in China, on a bus with bunk beds instead of seats. The answer for anyone who ever laments not being able to "lie out flat" while traveling (namely my mother).

I met Mandy in Xiamen and we've been running around drinking pearl tea, talking non-stop, and getting sinus infections from the pollution.
Mandy foiled 8-yr-old pickpocket on my behalf.

We went to an antique market in Xi'an where we had the pleasure of being the only white people. It was a dream come true, situated here at the end of the Silk Road. My mores begrudgingly won't allow ivory, tortoise, or coral jewelry.

The only thing I bought was a little wooden bench put together without nails or glue. Four inches high, ten inches wide. While walking around the rest of the day, people kept staring at it - even more our usual gross allotment - and I had three offers of purchase from people on the street, "How much?" Mandy's googling it right now to see what we have.

Terra-cotta warriors tomorrow.