the eye of the storm

Today is a strange, in-between day, the eye of my 7-week vacation storm. Yesterday I said goodbye to Steve at the Xi'an airport; when I met him there 7 days earlier, I was coming straight from a week and a half in Taiwan. Tomorrow I will fly to Chengdu to visit my dear friend Meg, in a week I will fly to Bangkok, and in a month I will finally return to Xi'an. Today I am calm and still. Today I am waiting for laundry to dry, trying to eat all the gingersnaps from Mom and leftover roast duck, catching up with my inbox and RSS reader, and enjoying the peace and quiet of my apartment before I jump into another adventure.

Having Steve visit was wonderful. I don't think I fully appreciated how good it was at the beginning, having just spent an also-wonderful time in Taiwan (pictures and stories to come, someday!), but I certainly appreciated it yesterday upon returning to my empty apartment. Despite it being frigid and snowing in Xi'an all week (making my plane 3.5 hours late last Sunday!), Steve being jetlagged (but not near as bad as I remember being when I arrived), and me being somewhat sick (I caught something in Taiwan and am just now getting over the cough), we managed to see a fair amount of Xi'an, eat a lot of good food, hang out with some of my friends who were still around, and mostly just enjoy getting to spend time together for a change.

Here we are in the midst of some delicious hotpot:

Right now I'm staying bundled up indoors -- it is STILL snowing in Xi'an, for the 10th day running, and will potentially turn into a blizzard in the next few days. I've heard it's the most snow they've had here in 20 years. Of course, it doesn't remotely compare to the blizzard I experienced at home last winter, but I'm glad to be heading south soon. Right now I'm researching potential options for beaches and maybe even a scuba diving course in Thailand, and thinking warm thoughts.