Back from a much-needed weekend getaway with Jill in Shanghai -- had a blast! Put some Halloween photos up on Facebook, so check em out there. On my first day we went to the giant Barbie store for Barbie-tinis, and I went back the next day to get some waxing done. It's soo hard to find a waxing place in Nanjing! (I typed 'waxing' into Google-translate and called a bunch of spas here to check if they did it to no avail...except I later found out the word I'd been using literally meant CAR waxing oops.) 2 ladies did my wax jobs at the same time...now, a 4-handed MASSAGE is sweet, but 4-handed WAXING?? Not so much!

I foolishly didn't book a train ticket back to Nanjing in advance, and when I got to the train station at 7 pm on Sunday, all the regular trains back were sold out. I ended up paying double the usual ticket price to ride a Beijing-bound ( sleeper train ) to Nanjing, where it stopped for 2 minutes to pick up more passengers. They didn't even announce that the train had arrived at the Nanjing station, so I literally had to jump off the top bunk, grab my luggage and dash out at the last minute.

Nanjing's freezing now; I think I'm actually beginning to hibernate. I slept 12 hours yesterday and I wasn't even tired! My body doesn't like climate change...I'm too cold to be hungry, so I've been drinking tea all day long and haven't eaten since yesterday. Not good, but I don't want to go outside, even if it's just to buy food!

It's 5 pm and the sun's already disappeared. Time to curl up in my stolen SQ blanket and watch Sex and the City!

Went to Huang Shan with the girls last weekend, it was gorgeous! Lots of walking, phototaking, the occasional cablecar-ing, overpriced instant noodles, breakfast muffins.....all culminating in a 4 am trek to the summit for sunrise.

Spending Halloween in Shanghai tomorrow night, I'll probably go as a.....vampire (original, I know ;p but I don't have dressup supplies in Nanjing, and you can't go wrong with a black dress & red lipstick!)

In other exciting news, K is coming to visit next week :D

BROWNTOWN LAHVE! I found a 100% original Indian prata man at a street food fair. Prata queen is officially happy!!!!

Other notable food fair discoveries - giant cauldron of snails, starfish, scorpions on a stick, ostrich, smelly tofu, ostrich meat.....( have a look if you want ), but PRATA FTW! :D


(Also featured: a strange breed of coconut, which the stallkeeper used a POWER DRILL to create a hole in for me to stick a straw through. ( I kid you not )