can’t believe it’s been nearly a week since i’ve been here! even though i’ve been taking it ultra slow. sorry for the lack of updates. internet has been hard to come by and i’ve been spending every precious connected minute crawling the web for an apartment. which, i am happy to inform you, i have found! eureka! yes, today was my last day apartment hunting and i’m really happy with the one i’ve found. it’s a cool loft close to the busiest part of downtown and my favorite thing about it is my 22nd floor view from my floor to ceiling window. i love living in a high rise.

right now i’m still staying in auntie karen’s comfy villa away from the city. she’s jetted off to italy so i’m just gonna pack up and move out tomorrow. this place is weird. in a good, familiar way, but surreal. we’re a good 45 minutes away from the city, so before you get here, it’s just highway and farm land. then you enter suburban american heaven… they have single-story strip malls with subway, domino’s and bagel shops. it’s like the most ordinary strip mall ever from anywhere, usa, except… only for rich people. so they can have a slice of home life. i really appreciate the sentiment (because God knows when i was in shanghai i missed the blandest pieces of american life) but it’s just kinda trippy. we had western style houses, but none of these strip malls in shanghai when i lived there.

lots of other stuff happened as well. as most of you know i got sick. the air is terrible here. TER. RI. BLE. i’ve never seen (smelled? tasted? felt?) pollution like this in my life. my lungs don’t get enough oxygen with each breath and i can feel it. soon enough i started coughing and then i had a fever and the works. i’ve gotten over most of it by now but the cough is still there… some say it won’t leave me until i am back in the states for another year. OMG. also, washing your face at night comes with a weird sensation of feeling a layer of grease on your skin. hard to wash off too, mind you.

tomorrow i’m moving and then it’s the national holiday. for 8 freaking days. if you don’t know what’s happening this week, then you don’t read the news. thursday is the 60th anniversary military parade and the whole city is on lockdown. i’m kind of excited/nervous about what’s happening because i do not underestimate chinese people. they are big and they are serious. i really don’t think i’ll be able to catch the actual parade at this point but i do hope to see the fireworks. hopefully they won’t burn down a giant building again.  looking forward to just spending the week unpacking/setting up my new place, and spending time with some friends.  i’ll have a lot of time to take pictures and post things then.

p.s. lockdown applies to media too. that means no twitter, no facebook, no youtube, no wordpress, blogspot, google news….. so please keep me updated on life! for all those who have emailed to update me thank you sooooo much and i can now find the time to return each and every one of you :D

yes, i have made it here safely! this will have to be another short post as i am at the world’s ghettoest internet cafe in the outskirts of the city, and the browser is crashing on me and making weird sounds despite pressing the mute button repeatedly.

anyway! being here has been such an adventure!  this is my first time getting on the internet. life in a foreign country without internet is tough. or a phone, for that matter. right now i’m living with the parents of the person i’m working for. it’s about a 30 minute bus ride into the heart of the city but it’s another world. nothing here is in english and the feel is very very local. i like it though. the auntie and uncle i’m staying with are SUPER nice and keep trying to stuff me with food. they can’t believe americans eat so little.

yesterday i ventured into town to hang out with my mom’s friend auntie karen. she is BALLIN’. okay, she owns this little boutique in an expat nightlife district flanked by uniqlo and beijing’s one and only apple store. her driver picked me up and took me to this salon where she was getting her hair done, and then we went shopping and she treated me to dinner at this swanky place on a rooftop. it was pretty cool. so i guess i like beijing. :)

going to look at some apartments today. i hope i get some internet and a phone number soon so it’ll be easier to reach people. love & miss y’all…

so… this is it. getting on a plane in about 9 hours and taking off for china! i’m pretty much a nervous wreck right now so i don’t have anything intelligent to say. i don’t want to think about the journey over too much or i know i’ll just make myself more anxious. so that’s it. it’s been good, people! see you on the other side.

i’m so excited to share these photos :) jen is a dear friend from college and i’m super looking forward to shooting her wedding next summer because it’ll be a big reunion for a lot of college friends! we went to tri-city park right in my neighborhood for this shoot and lucked out with the most amazing golden light. (thank you to jane who came out and shot with me and jon for the pretty lens!)

what do you do when you find a random shopping cart in a park? ride it down grassy hills, of course.

this was a hilarious moment when about 15 geese crossed the bridge single file towards a woman with food.

i LOVE this ring shot! all jen’s idea :)

p.s. new blog layout! i stayed up ALL night fixing it… yeah. i don’t miss those all-nighters.

yay, i’ve been on an editing spree!  here is a little preview of today’s engagement session with jen + siu-ling. i’ll post the rest tomorrow. :) in other news… i am leaving for china in less than a week!  must. go. pack.