Hi dear friends,

How are you? Thank you those who wrote to me for Xmas and all the best to you all as well. Sorry I have been a little bit busy with my plannings in Berlin (or I am just bad with organizations:)) that I haven't written to you yet since I got here. 

All in all it has been wonderful. I love Berlin and I am having a wonderful time with friends here. Berlin is very cool and big and spread out and it's a city who has a lot to say and to show. Sometimes it's serious and wild, sometimes it's quiet and mature, sometimes it's fun and crazy, sometimes it's hip and chic, sometimes it's cool and sexy. Anyway, it's also much cheaper compared to Paris, and it's definitely positive for traveling. 

I missed the flight yesterday to Paris, so I am still here until probably the 30th. I hope I can make it back before new year. Will keep the update. take care and have a great new year holiday.

I went for a run in the evening, and I just found out that the tower has been blue for a while! to honor the 6 months'  French EU presidency. It's the mythical blue~~ I didn't have the camera with me (and my cell is not an Iphone neither), so I borrowed a pic from somewhere else. The circle of starts is not there anymore, it was lasting only for 2 months since June 30.

As for me, it was nice and brand new, I ran a round extra on the Champ de Mars tonight!  Paris is beautiful, what can I say...when i was looking back at it on the way running home, it was one of these moments when I thought in my head how I would miss this city one day I leave... however, even sometimes something is so great, you just know that you gotta go and leave it, did it happen to you too?

这是回来的第三个星期了，所以决定从明天开始多出去走动。

主要是找导师的事情够烦，居然被拒三次，现在只等最后一个的消息了，不过我已经很悲观的说。。。

今天是琛25岁生日，给她打了电话，主要聊的是尤总的婚礼。之后也给莫莫打了，不知不觉聊了一个多小时，我看你的博很积极的摸样，可是听说话却很惆怅的样子，希望你好起来。

Yesterday I called Ange who used to live in the room next to mine, she went back to Poland after the Southeast Asia trip with the girls.  we chatted for over an hour, I totally understand what she meant by "being bored at home..." , haha, i just got back from "3 months of that" !  seriously doubt  I'll be able to do that again. Then today I just checked emails , like everyday... and a list was coming up...
Elena   Mexico
Monique   Luxembourg
Jo&Mel   St Paul, States
Angel   Krakow, Poland
Alex   Berlin
Luciole   Dublin
Else&Philip   Shanghai
Me   Paris
Many in China, still many in Paris...

Let's see what's for the next...

Coucou amigos,

How are all of you? It's been a whole week since I landed on China's soil. My flight with Air Canada was good enough. I had 2 seats all to myself, I ate well, I didn't talk to anybody, I watched about 4, 5 movies including <CJ no.7>, vive Stephane Chou!! It was worth getting the visa.  At SFO airport, same guy checked me in(he was nice and helpful the first time too),"visa this time?", "Abso-(f**king)-lutely."

China has been changing so much and has not...Shanghai was same hot, bad air and crowded... I missed the flight to home in the afternoon and the following one was very late in the evening. I rested some, taking a shower in the hotel and I changed my mind, deciding not to keep traveling. So, I went to visit friends, ate very Chinese dinner and then went to Sasha's for a frozen Margerita, then Zapata's for a non-frozen Margerita just by myself. It was not bad at all. And the new friends I made at Zapata's altered my original plan, making me stay one more night in Shanghai and it was another good night. They took me to the grand opening of a trendy lounge bar Salotto @ ORO villa, very modern cool architecture and decoration, it actually lasted 3 days if you want! I don't know why it was there but the display of the Technogym was truely cool. I got some pics in the new album on line you can check them out.  Then we went for dinner at Three on the Bund----a place I had been wanting to check out for long, food was very good especially amaaaazing chocolate cake. Then on its 6th floor lots & lots of Martinis at  Laris, first marble bar I've ever been to I think. So 3 on the Bund was indeed a "wow!". Then we went dancing at Attica's, huge and smokey but not from the cigarettes, kinda ambiguous, also incredible view of the bund. People everywhere were very interesting, Shanghai night life in general was a "wow!", to be exact, an "oh~~", if you know what I mean.

I finally got home in Hefei on Friday, travel ended. Voila photos from my trip :
http://picasaweb.google.com/tan.mengya/200807AmericaShanghai

Yup eventually I decided to go to Beijing during the Game. It's sth now or never, even though I hesitated, I'm too curious about it. I will leave in about a week, thinking of arriving 2, 3 days before the OG/JO opening which is on the 8th. Basically I'll hang out with my amigos, visit family's friends, and try to feel the grand event. I'm excited! I only took pictures of BJ when I was 10 and never after, but definitely I'll get some this time and hopefully I'll be able to send you the atmosphere. :)

My city is almost having a face-off. Seriously they are re-constructing almost every street and new residential areas keep booming... and you know what, I never take picutres of Hefei my own city and now I am!

I had a very nice day today, hope you did as well.

Hi Dear Friends,

Seattle and being with Tyler have been doing good to me.

Here I feel more like of a stay rather than traveling if you know what I mean. I find something more home and close to Tyler than my previous days which were more like a trip. We went to grocery store at midnight and made sandwiches...I never made any food before when I was at other people's place... of course I enjoyed all the food I had at all those restaurants in NY and SF, it's just different. I think the fact that I miss home makes me feel comfortable and content when I live like this as if I was at my place. Every morning we make coffee and breakfast and smoke a cigarette together in front of the building when crazies pass by from time to time. Oh my.. I'm actually such a fan of American food, peanut butter, big pancake, French toast, hamburger, big American coffee... Tyler has a sweet apt on Capitol Hill and I can have it all to my own for the day, I even did laundry today. I'm going to take a bath later, it will be certainly and simply perfect. Tyler has a mirror on the wall above the tub, I just love it so much. :)

So, I like Seattle. Weather has been so kind to me everywhere I went so far which should be taken into account. I got in the city late on Tuesday and for the first time there are actually buses like normal municipal buses running to the airport, how odd. I jumped on a bus to downtown and paid .5. So since I landed, Seattle has just been different. Later on I find out its different features more and more. Yesterday my first day here was simply perfect. For the first time, I didn't wake up at 5am instead I didn't want to get up at 6 as how I set up the alarm, I slept so well that I had to force myself to get up at 7 to go the consulate. I constantly felt like I was in Canada though I don't know why. So the visa was fast , got my passport back in the afternoon and I confirmed my ticket of the 22nd. Music came to my mind about Seattle very soon, I was stopped by a summer concert in the open air on the way to fetch my passport. They even played chacha! Crazies were dancing around. The rest of the day I was accompanied by music all along everywhere I went, they just play out there all the time. Impressions of coffee shops and bars came very soon as well. I like how they all have sidewalk seatings like in Europe, but here are not French windows or no shelter at all, many of them have fences which is nice and different feeling. In reality, Seattle is much more artful than I expected, it is really arty. Plenty of nice shops and graphic designs and Urban constructions. I've seen a good numbers of cafes and bars that have great interior design, one prominent feature for me is that in many places the ceiling is twice or 3 times higher than a normal cafe or bar room, I like that way, size always makes a difference. Yesterday I walked around all over the center and had so much cherries and berries that I bought from Pike Market and ate dinner by myself in a nice Bolivian restaurant on its terrace with a beautiful view of the Ocean and sunset. Seattle has also some generals things that I like about a city,such as hilly, next to water, trees...

And of course, people are always one of the most important aspects and Seattleites are different. I haven't been to that many places or spent a long time in America yet, but I think it's the city with the most numerous crazy or grundgy people as far as I know. Since I arrived, there have been people asking for cigarettes and money and they really keep talking to you. It also happens so frequent that some crazies yell or just act really weird on streets. On the other hand, normal Seattleites seem very independent, feels like they just don't really care like they are each one so individual and on his own, or maybe I should say they care but definitely not in the same way that New Yorkers and/or San Franciscans would care about others, how they dress, look like etc. They seem nice. Last night we went to this bar close home (high ceiling, nice design) there was this guy in sport shots n shoes and dancing happily, this sort of things that you don't see else where but common enough here and people are used to it too. At least, I'm already used to it. On the way back, I bought a hot dog at 2am, you know what I mean saying I'm fan of American food?! Same on the way back, a drunk guy sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, came another guy walking around him and probably was trying to steal something but smiled at us and said that he was going to really help the drunk guy. Anyway, I think you see what I mean about the crazies here.

Today I didn't do that much, slept until 10am(wow!) and took care of stuffs like emails, laundry... then had lunch with Tyler in a Thai place which was very good and we went to check out women shoes again like yesterday we did that in Nordstrom, where he works at the moment. We had so much fun really and shoes were so beautiful. Apparently we like going shopping together. :)

Ok I've done my dose of blablablaing, I'm going to take my bath now.