动画。。。Halloween in 昆明

石卡雪山
云海
普达措国家公园
松赞林寺
虎跳峡

I am glad to be back to Nanjing, even though I've grown pretty sick of polluted cities. Spending time in Yunnan was very appreciated, especially when the weather turned fantastic in our last two days of travel. The landscape there, especially around Shangrila reminded me much of parts of Colorado and Oregon, in essence it is quite similar to the American West. I thought about how much my family would love it; aspects of it reminded me of being up at West Lost with Sammy, and others of tromping around eastern and western Oregon with Julian the year before last. So imagine the American West, but instead of cowboys there are Tibetans (西藏人). We were able to spend quite a bit of time outdoors those last two days which was nice after all the cold and rain.
Traveling back to Nanjing was a long process and I am glad to be back because now I am on less of a strict schedule and can enjoy a substantial amount of privacy. Halloween (yesterday) was spent partially on top of a mountain (石卡雪山), on a bus zipping through winding roads with ridiculous techno music playing, on a plane and in Kunming a bit offset from the city center. Suffice to say, it wasn't much of a Halloween at all with one exception, a Halloween-themed animation that Shawna had made for me. And that brought the feeling back. This morning I called Julian from Skype in my hotel lobby in Kunming and found out he was Cat in the Hat for Halloween, which made me really happy for some reason. En route back to Nanjing, my friend Jake (who is also a U of O student) and I were trying to describe how ridiculous the people in Oregon, specifically Eugene and Srpingfield, are and it struck me that I have literal handfuls of weird Oregon stories. I actually miss it, the everyday oddity you see there if you step off campus long enough. And I thought about Oregon Country Fair, how that is the epic pinnacle of Oregonian weirdness.
Today is Nov 1, giving me 1.5 months remaining in China. I know what I need to do and how I should utilize my time, no matter how much I get to missing the States at times and all of my loved ones there. I will be back soon.