Where I reappear like a fat chipmunk after a long winter hibernation if chipmunks hibernated

Guess what? This blog isn’t abandoned after all!

No, seriously, in an excellent example of adult avoidance ("Well I don’t have to and you can't make me" combined with "I don’t like stress so I just won’t do it"), I was so overwhelmed by the number of trips and pictures I took during the winter months, plus the annoying way the Great Firewall of PRC likes to cut out my connection just when I’m about to upload an entry, I just decided to throw my hands up and pretend I never had a blog anyway. Completely logical way of dealing with life. Kind of like what happens when I look too closely at the presidential campaign. 

 

http://the-ice-castle.tumblr.com/post/141039049247/keeping-up-with-the-american-elections-while-not

 

So after a couple months (i.e., half a year) of throwing the over-21 version of a temper tantrum at the internet and my DSLR memory cards, I’ve decided to try it again (mainly by ignoring all the trips I took until a later date.)

Fear not, blog readers who really don’t care where/who/what I did – I have photos from a weekend getaway to the most obscure province of China saved for you below! 

Wine country! Sakura blossoms! Mosques built by the UAE! Mysterious sudden 9 hours of snowfall!

This is Ningxia, a small province in northwest China and one of the five “autonomous regions” of PRC. Once home to the Xi Xia Dynasty, a short 190 year rule by the Tangut people who weren’t really that good at invading others, but still tried like the little kingdom that couldn’t, they are probably most known for having their culture, state, and even language nearly obliterated by Ghengis Khan for revolting under Mongol rule.

G Khan took revenge seriously.

Long considered a mythical dynasty that didn’t exist, they now consist of 500 collected artifacts and fragments as well as some burial mounds and what other dynasties have written about them in passing.

Now, the area contains the “grape wall of China”, containing some of the more promising of wineries in China. 

This cracked me up. Pictures of world leaders being served their wine. 

Beautiful but honestly, can someone explain how it suddenly went from 70 degree weather to trudging through ankle deep snow in my Avengers converse?

Our catchphrase for the weekend was "What season is it?"

Great shot of the PRC flag unfurling in the crisp morning wind in front of one of the first mosques we visited, in old town Yanchuan.

On our itinerary was a chance to view Sheikh Zayed Mosque, a mosque funded by the UAE. It took three incorrect mosques, chatting with a number of very friendly, vaguely confused local Hui muslims exiting their service, taking an hour and half detour based on the directions provided by a random local sitting in the back of a pickup, intense negotiations with the tour company based in Gangsu that hired our driver, and then accidentally interrupting a class of muslim students, we found our mosque.

Despite nearly causing a traffic accident when the drivers of cars were too busy staring at the foreigners, we managed to get in and get out of Ningxia, completing one of the more unexpected of my weekend getaways in China. Fun times.

These two photos are courtesy of M from Beijing, who figured out how to take pictures on a bumpy road with her camera.

And because what's traveling without finding out the local beer. X2, X3, X5 Xixia.

After what has been a good 20 months at post, there is the beginning of the feeling of wrapping things up and getting ready for moving on. A lot of hellos and goodbyes, as is the norm in our work, with congrats to R getting married (here's his cute dog below, who I will be skyping with to watch the wedding), and a sibling of mine possibly making a big school decision for himself. (Congratulations, E! I support you!)

It’s going to be a busy summer (some big events happening China if you read the news) and I don’t think I’m going to be lounging around with a marguerite, waiting for my pack out. (A cup of earl grey with milk, that’s a different story.)  There’s still a lot to do at work, but I’m starting to realize I’m running short on weekends and holidays to do traveling with still a good number of places I never did get around to. (Mongolia…Szechuan…Hainan...the gym) Time really flies when you’re busy doing….you know…being the face of ‘murica, helping ‘Muricans, diplomat stuff.

But hey! I'm back! 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go relax and read the entire collection of Calvin and Hobbes I bought off ebay last week. (Because I’m an adult.)