Hey from America... for now.

Monday, January 2, 2006!


oh, the coney island polar plunge. how i love thee.

I am going to need several more days to recover from the festivities of the past weekend, a.k.a. the Last Weekend in America Final Hurrah! First there was Cat's birthday, which ended at the Bulgarian Bar and got a bit out of hand. Quite literally, really: My beloved camera came crashing to the floor during the course of the crazy Bulgarian dancing, and now it is no longer with us. Let us please have a moment of silence. The camera has photographed so much (something like 10 countries this year alone, not to mention lots and lots of Chinese babies!) and it will be missed.

And now let us welcome new camera! It is cute and fancy and has an enormous memory card that allowed me to take about a million pictures of ridiculous New Year's Eve debauchery and morning-after Polar Bear Plunging at Coney Island. The rest of the weekend highlights included the somewhat recently renovated MoMA (its architecture and design section just might be the happiest place on earth) and awesome burgers and lots of laughing. I'm hoping all these pictures will tide you over for a few days, because I desperately need to go pack. The 20 hour+ trek to Singapore begins Wednesday morning, and frankly, I am just looking forward to getting on the plane and taking a really, really long nap.

Also! The NYT totally hearts Singapore. With bonus pictures!


first things first: congratulations to Anne and Adam, who got engaged this weekend! we celebrated with chat 'n chew mac and cheese, naturally.


and there's the birthday girl! this picture was taken shortly before the old camera went to a better place. happy 30th, cat.

Luckily the new camera was purchased just before the New Year's Eve party at the infamous Rodeo Bar so it could capture this Cormier-style close-up photo essay:








and also this equally ridiculous competition as to who had the larger head.



well, hello, rodeo bar stairs. so we meet again.


the singer pretty much rocked. this lady's hat did not.


despite appearances to the contrary, he was playing rockabilly, not gangsta.



haaaaaappppy new year! yay 2006.


the next morning, still feeling rather festive, we headed off to the island of coney.


i personally do not plunge. but i enjoy witnessing from the safety of the beach.


nate deteriorated rapidly after this.


the plunge crowd is very random...


not to mention extremely uninhibited.


who are my favorite little plungers?


documented proof of craziness.


doing the coney boardwalk thing.



the chill starts to set in.


2006 is off to a good start!



Hi, I'm Betsy. I'm actually no longer in China, but I used to be. I moved to Beijing in October 2003 and started this site shortly thereafter to chronicle my adventures. I departed in October 2005 to head back to the US for a short while. But! I'll be relocating to Singapore on January 4, 2006. So stick around, it should be fun.

Want more? Go ahead and e-mail me. Say hello!

archives!

the china years:
Dec. 2005
Oct.-Nov. 2005
Sept. 2005
June-Aug. 2005
April-May 2005
Jan.-March 2005
Nov.-Dec. 2004
Oct. 2004
Aug.-Sept. 2004
July 2004
June 2004
Apr.-May 2004
March 2004
Jan.-Feb. 2004
Oct.-Dec. 2003