Things I loved:
- Flora & Qin
- Our apartment (with four people to help bring groceries in!)
- The view from our apartment (overlooking the Yellow Sea and restaurant row)
- The food (in small doses)
- The people
- Travel around China
- The culture
- The tailor (Er Qi)
- The Chinese boudoir photo shoot
- The tea
- Walking along the Xinghai boardwalk
Things I tired of:
- Sketchy health and safety practices
- Eating only three salads in nine months
- Small xpat community
- Limited food selection
- The black dirt that never seemed to come off the floor
- The smell of sewage in our bathroom (gag!)
- The mosquitoes that with one prick make your entire arm or leg swell
- The tiny washing machine that didn't dry (=sandpaper towels)
- The holes in the ground (in lieu of toilets)
- General sanitary issues
- Grubby beaches
- The "marine layer"
- The water
- Being stared at and pointed at everywhere I go
- People trying to take Chase from me
- People reaching out and touching Chase's face, hair, hands, feet
Things that I will not forget:
- The extreme poverty: shanty towns and allys where people live on the streets
- The moms begging with a baby in their laps
- The Chinese New Year fireworks
- My friends
- The time we had here...
