Happy New Year!

I'm off to Beijing tomorrow to meet up with a good friend Ellen, who will be in Beijing for about two days as part of a Vanderbilt orchestral tour of China. Since I'll be there for about five days, most of my time will be with random people, called couchsurfers, whom I've contacted online for a free place to sleep (plus gain cultural insight). So, wish me luck on that venture.

I thought I'd leave you with a picture of a traditional Chinese toilet. This one in particular is located in the building in which I teach, so you can imagine I try to avoid it whenever possible. Still, I have to endure its smell for multiple hours each day, though the putrid stench is somewhat muted in the winter.



I've been spending a lot of time in the bathroom myself lately, though luckily not this one, as I came down with my first ever case of food poisoning a couple of days ago. Almost everyone that comes to China gets sick because of the food in the first few days, and while that did happen when I first arrived, this was much worse. I was pretty weak for about a day and a half and slept for about 60 percent of those days, but I'm pretty much over it now.

On that note, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Since I'll be in Beijing, I'll be celebrating it at least 13 hours ahead of most of you, but perhaps I'll be thinking of you celebrating the New Year as I'm eating lunch that day.

Cheers!