Honeymoon, Spring Festival, and More

Well, I know you are anxious to hear about our trip to Africa and everything that's been going on the past month. So there are going to be many parts to this story. First off, our honeymoon was just amazing on so many levels...

I am going to try and break down everything in a few days ay a time.

So here goes....

Day One-

Chase and I made a trip on Saturday morning to drop Milo off at the premier kennel in Shanghai. It's called Paradise Kennel in a little suburb of Shanghai. We decided to rent a car so that we would be back on time to catch our flight the next morning. We had the opportunity to ride in an Audi A6 which was lovely. Milo also enjoyed it until we showed up at the kennel... and then he became antsy. We were showed to his heated room (more like a glass cubicle) and gave last minute instructions to the staff at the facility. In our efforts to deflect his attention from our departure, Chase and I took him to the play area which included an obstacle course that is used in agility training. Milo still had his cone on his head due to his recent toe infection and here's what happened....

Chinese New Year and the Lantern Festival

The world outside is blowing up. Literally. Fireworks in every direction. We have two balconies in our apartment, north and south, and we can see blazes of fire from each one. It's a whole fireworks show that's been going on for the past hour and should intensify as the night goes on.

Milo is about to have a nervous breakdown. He's pacing back and forth, on the couch, on the windowsill, out to the front door. He can see the lights but then there are certain sounds that he just doesn't know where they are coming from. He's getting a good work out at least.

Today is the 15th day of the lunar calendar in China and it's the last night of Chinese New Year Celebrations. (Can I get a What...What?!). It's the Lunar Festival where they light tons of red lanterns along the streets and light fireworks because it's the last night to celebrate. I mean power to the Chinese people and all that and congratulations that they seem to be the 2nd largest economy and yay for the Year of the Rabbit but I've been thinking....

You know how in the US, every year animal rights groups urge people not overdo it and impulsively buy a cute bunny for their child on Easter? Every year thousands of rabbits die because about two weeks later, the kid doesn't want it anymore... and Bop! on the head of a little Bunny Foo-Foo somewhere... and we have rabbit stew...

Ok, I am exaggerating a little...

But just imagine how many MILLIONS of rabbits were bought this year in China to fulfill the desires of little Chinese children everywhere this New Year.

Just food for thought... or is it thought for food?

Back from Africa

Well, it's been almost two days since we returned. We quickly unpacked on the evening of our return. Yesterday morning we headed to the train station to pick up Milo in Shanghai but we missed the train by literally seconds. The next train was two hours away so I reluctantly asked Chase to go by himself while I stayed in Hangzhou to get a few last-minute things done before I go back to work.

I went grocery shopping, answered a bunch of emails, and did some Spring cleaning. Boy, that felt good.

Chase returned with Milo in one piece after a big ordeal of sneaking him through security to get on the high-speed train. He was told several times by people that he was very lucky to have not been caught. And several police officers and guards were really cautioning him not to do that again. Milo will not be traveling by train in the future.

Now, we're back on the routine and Milo and I went on our weekly walk around the Westlake this morning. I have some work in my classroom this afternoon and besides that will be just enjoying my last day before school starts tomorrow.

By the way, Africa was great. I don't have any pictures yet because on the third day of our trip, Chase dropped our camera into the Okavango Delta and, well, .... at least we had a backup camera, but no pictures of the great wildlife we saw. He says the memory card is somewhere but I am weary of this. Hopefully we can find the memory card and retrieve what's on there because we saw amazing scenery, wildlife, and had many great memories.