Rainbow

This was definitely the prettiest thing in the sky in Shanghai!  I used Photoshop's Photomerge tool to create these panoramas.

Groceries

Cost = 50 RMB ($7.92 USD)

Cost = 439 RMB ($64.09 USD)

It is really amazing how there is such a great difference in cost for food here.

Couchsurfers and a CS party

George and Marion (our Dutch surfers) on the top of our roof.


Boots likes to lay on our CSers stuff on the bed and wait to get petted. (photo by Marion)

Marion, Sandhya and I. Sandhya and her husband Nishant hosted the party and cooked delicious vegetarian Indian food. VERY delicious!!

A very diverse group - guys from San Francisco here for the eclipse, a guy that lived at the South Pole three times (my cousin Brian did that; worked at the research station there and shoveled a lot of snow), people from Isreal, Lithunania, Columbia, the Netherlands, Italy, India and a guy with Pakistani heritage living in London - all getting together in China. The world is really small now!

Personal grooming

This girl is popping her boyfriend's zits.

In public.

You see it often - just like you see people deliberately picking their nose, cleaning out their ears with a long fingernail, or clipping their nails. Personal grooming here is NOT so personal!

Fashion around West Lake

Here we have a classic summer look. It's hot, so wear shorts and roll up your t-shirt for maximum air flow. You need to look stylish though, so wear your black dress shoes with white socks.

This white poodle had a fluorescent orange tail and ears. Poor little guy doesn't even know he looks like a traffic cone.

During the summer, many dogs are shaved like lions (to keep cool, I suppose.) They leave the head furry so that it looks like a lion's mane!

Things locals do around West Lake...

... feed the swans (Does her t-shirt mean that her fashion is the latest fashion in history?)

... practice tai qi

... sleep (why would you get up at 6 AM to go sleep by the lake?)

... jog BACKWARDS around the lake (apparently it improves balance)

... stretch

Temple in Hangzhou

(photo by Jon)

(photo by Jon)
Lots of people waving burning incense all around. Very safe.

Why do people have to touch everything? We all know that the oils from our skin ruins old things. So, they've put up a fence to stop people from touching the very old carvings of Buddha. This doesn't stop them though... they just use it to stand on to lean over and touch him!

Too many people!!! Everyone seems to need to get a photo in front of everything, so people are just constantly standing everywhere.

Jon's photos from Hangzhou

Jon is a pretty good photographer too! He has learned a lot about composition and tricks to get good photos with his point and shoot. All of these photos are his.

Jon and Emily together in photos!

It was nice to have Mr. Fan take some photos of us together... we almost never have photos together! We're too busy taking photos ourselves.

Blooming Lotus Flowers

Trip to Hangzhou and West Lake

Last weekend, Jon needed to go to Hangzhou for work. Saturday, we took the slower (and very loud and annoying) T train there. Mr. Fan is also very interested in photography, so he took us to West Lake twice, as the famous lotus flowers are in bloom.

More pretty flowers from Sweden

Pretty drinks

Seagulls

All of these photos were taken from the cruise ship with my Tamron 70-300mm telephoto lens. After getting a camera upgrade, I realize how mediocre it really is.

Swedish Cruise

We took a one-day cruise in Sweden that went from the Stockholm archipelago to an island in the Finland archipelago. Since alcohol is SO expensive in Sweden, a lot of Swedes go to other countries to get it. So, it was basically a beer run!

(photo by Jon)
We had a couple of hours in Stockholm before we left, but it started POURING rain, and we'd left our umbrellas with our luggage. Jon and I sat down at a pub and watched the weather and had a couple beers.



It finally stopped raining as the ship left Stockholm.

Celia, Hanna, Andreas, Henrik and Jon in the dining room. We ate a couple smorgasbords. All very traditional Swedish food like herring and salmon.

Enjoying a last drink.

Celia the movie star... looking fabulous after a nice relaxing massage.

Henrik bought Hanna a Canon DSLR for a wedding present. What a sweet guy! She loved it. We teased them about bringing 4 extra people on their honeymoon, but they claim that the honeymoon isn't until they go to New Zealand in December.