Hanghzou International Marathon

Dear All,

Well, I wanted to post last weekend because Chase and I went on a long hike around the West Lake and saw some wonderful sights. We hiked around the western half and down the Su Causeway and found some interesting and beautiful spots. I took plenty of pictures but Chase has pretty much hijacked the camera and I don't have those pictures at the moment.

But I can tell you about this weekend. Our friend, Lisa, from Shanghai came on Saturday morning to stay in Hangzhou because she ran the Hangzhou 1/2 Marathon this morning. We spent most of the morning tidying up and I shopped for a few breakfast foods such as bread, honey, coffee, etc. so she could have something to eat before the run. She has run the Great Wall Marathon a couple of times as well as some other long races, so she's definitely in shape, but we just wanted to be good hosts. So when she arrived, we went to lunch and then got her registration packet. At the same time, I hoped to register, but unfortunately, it was all full or since I didn't already register online, I couldn't. I didn't understand the chinese they were speaking well enough.

So we went to an extremely long dinner at a restaurant called Valentino's last night. The food was well-prepared and I would go back, but by the time we got out, I was was falling asleep in the cab.

We woke up this morning and Chase and I decided to run the 6.8 km (mini-marathon, they called it) even though we weren't legally registered. Mind you, anything is possible in China. Sometimes you just play the "wai guo ren" card (foreigner card) and you have the rights to pretty much do anything. So we ran. Chase kept pace with me for the first 15 minutes and then took off at his speed for the rest of the 5kms or so. I had a great time running and I am proud that I didn't stop for the whole 6.8 kms. That is certainly a great accomplishment as I am not built to be a runner.

Lisa also finished the half-marathon in good time and we met up with her new guy who also lives in Shanghai. He just came in for the day. So we went to brunch. Going to brunch is a big deal in the ex-pat world of China and people make a huge fuss over it. But I'm ok with a little bit of gorging once a month especially when there's free-flow champagne (in our case, Proseco). We feasted and then took a stroll over to the banks of the West Lake before they had to catch their train back.

We hope to go to Shanghai during the Thanksgiving weekend and really eat at the Mother of all Brunches at the Westin-Shanghai. It's supposed to be intense. I can't hardly wait. We also might to go to Beijing to visit our friends there, so we'll keep you updated on what we decide to do.

October

This is the first city I have lived in that I have actually experienced a Fall. The mornings are mild and the sun just barely burns up all the vapor in the air by noon. The afternoons are bright, airy, and you can take off your sweater and replace it with sunglasses. By three or four, the wind kicks back up and the evenings are cool. I know Lola would love this weather. I really am enjoying it and in Hangzhou, the osmanthus blooms. The entire city smells so sweet as you are walking down the streets. The streets are lined with osmanthus trees and their yellow buds are captivating. Wish you all we here with me!

Happy Diwali

I hope everyone had a great Diwali. I ended up meeting a friend for dinner at a local Indian restaurant in Hangzhou. We then stopped into a chinese bar for him to have another drink and I was happy to watch CCTV 5 which was showing the World Gymnastics championships. The Aussie's had an Indian on their team so naturally I was rooting for him.

But now this morning I have woken up with a sore throat, drainage, and just feeling bleh. I think it's that I'm not used to cigarette smoke and in bars in China you are bombarded with it. The ill-effects of smoking are simply not talked about, the people aren't educated. I have thought several times of opening up a quit-smoking group similar to ones in America as there are no support structures educating people or helping them through the process once they have made the decision to quit.

Anyways, I am paying the price of my few minutes of tv bliss.

So even though I'm not feeling a 100% I'm still going to the Yoga Summit today to take some classes. It's their anniversary so there are a bunch of free classes. I'm taking three. Well, we'll see. I just can't pass this up when a normal class costs $40. Yes, 40USD.... and we are in China. Who can afford that!??! Well, the rich in Communism get richer, that's who.

Dream Theory

I woke up the other day and what happened next might have been the turning point in deciding that I need to get back into writing a blog. Not because I think I'm an excellent writer and everyone out there should know all about my life, but more so because my blog last year was definitely an outlet, a processing zone, a space to journal and get all the thoughts out. It also helped that friends do like to know what I'm doing over here. But there are so many thoughts in my head that it helped to let them have their space.... far away on the internet. You might wonder why choose such a public forum to detail these thoughts, but in fact I find the internet to be a wall rather than a web. The thoughts bounce on the wall and as I read and reread my work they slowly bounce back to me and allow me to see myself and my life.... gain perspective if you will.

So I'm off the soapbox now. Anyways, I woke up and incase you didn't know this little factoid about me, I have my best thoughts in the first few moments of waking. The saying, "sleep on it" is definitely (now underline that 100 times) how I make the decisions in my life. My mind speaks clearly after my subconscious and my heart have made the decision over a night's sleep. It's that simple. So I do my best to wake up slowly so I can hear what my heart feels before the rest of the days chaos takes over. And this Sunday morning it spoke:

Prana is a Healing Energy.

Deep deep within my gut this message was sent to me and I was in denial that I heard it. Did I make that up? Did I put that together? I've never heard that sentence spoken to me but somehow my subconscious new it and needed me to hear it again that morning. There was nothing wrong with me. What did I need to heal? But it is the truth. The pranic feeling after a sweaty session of yoga doesn't make you feel tired, instead you feel uplifted. I'm usually springier, brighter, happier, lighter, fuller. Even the flow of prana after you come out of certain poses are like a euphoric feeling that you want to hold on to, recreate in your life, and sustain. Not that I'm attached and clingy to the actual feeling. But I am privy to the fact that it is an energy that is like a gift that we humans have within us. So I treasure that gift. So long as we can practice letting prana come into the whole of our body and reside in its home we can never be broken.

First Things First

Well, I am so excited to be able to blog once again that I just had to post some pictures. Our wedding pictures are up on www.katemeffordblog.com. These are just a selection of what our photographer chose to put on her blog and I encourage you to check them out. The whole selection will be on another website in the near future.

Anyways, she wasn't there to take pictures at the Rehearsal Dinner hosted by Chase's parents at the Four Seasons, so I thought that you could have a look at some shot from our camera.

My parents looking fabulous. They don't look stressed about the next 48 hours at all, don't you think?

A close-up of the gorgeous centerpieces Chase's mom, Donna, put together.

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This is after the dinner. I thought it was really great that almost everyone wore black and white that evening! Even my cousins who aren't pictured were in sync! Which brings me to my next point that my bridesmaids pictured below showed up to the reception in purple dresses without consulting each other.... that was one of the wedding colors. I had asked them to wear what they pleased and how cool is it that they matched!

Facionable

So I have entered the world of the fashionably encrypted! So far, my computer thinks I am surfing the internet from Italy rather than China and all my toolbars for blogger.com are in Italian. Makes it quite fun really. Who knows, maybe I'll be in Vietnam next time I log in!

So I must say it took me so long to "break the rules." I am such a by-the-book kind of person that I felt an sense of guilt just looking into the bending the cyberwaves.

But I took the plunge and now I am free! It feels ...well, freeing... I can now connect with all my friends within all that freedom, wouldn't you know?

So if there is anybody out there still wanting to know what's going on in little chinatown over here... here I am... And I promise to not let that Great Wall get in the way of being fashionable in cyberspace.

The wedding is over and now we have switched gears to getting ready to go back to China. I have been sad about Lola for the last 48 hours and while I was sorting out which jewelry to take to China and so on, she came over, placed both her paws on my leg and buried her head between her two front legs. Love. That is pure love.

I can't stop the tears from streaming for the last 45 minutes now. She knows we are leaving her and although I know she will be taken care of, played with, and loved here on Circleview Drive, I selfishly will wish she was with me in China.

The love I have for her is a different kind of love that I have with nothing else in the world. She is my first dog. She's not perfect. She barks too much. She doesn't know how to roll over and she's possessive with her toys and food. But in my eyes, all I see is the best dog in the world. The only dog that will be in my heart always. She's perfect to me.