farewell post

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last guest appearance by aabeyta

and now, the end is near and so i face the final curtain... (a frank sinatra song for every occasion).

yes, it's time for me to return to my sunny land of mexico. time for me to say goodbye to china. if i could extend my visa i wonder if i'd be going back yet...probably not.

china has been FANTASTIC! we went to the fancy famous duck restaurant for dinner last night. the menu is literally a book. a BOOK the size of a dictionary. we ordered, we ate. it was wonderful. they cut the duck into a hundred pieces. and it melts, melts with sugar right in your mouth.

the day before we went to the wall. it's incredible. from the top of where i climbed i could see the wall going across the hills in every direction. convoluted curves and ups and downs. it smells like pine and honey. the wind is fresh and warm. it's beautiful. and so steep. there are so many sections you can't walk up. you have to haul yourself up hand over hand on the guard rail. i wore flipflops and there were places i had to go barefoot. sweat dripping down, fresh air blowing over me. it felt like accomplishing something to haul myself to the top.

we have had such a good time. molly and ben and china have brought my smile back. we have laughed so hard. we had "foot massages" that were so inappropriate! we went for our foot massages and got a pimp room for three. we were on these plush seats, the masseurs were in front of us. but it alllll began when the masseurs walked in. i am so used to appropriate gender segregated mexico that it never even occured to me that they would send a man in. but there they were, ben got a sweet young girl and molly and i got two young china boys, mine in a tight white tshirt no doubt selected for it's small size showing off his big muscled. i stared at him in shock and horror as he sat down in front of me, putting my feet into steaming water...did i mention i was wearing and ittybitty dress that covered not that much when i was standing and less when i'm sitting down and have a tight tshirted boy in front of me with hs face level with my knees.

i was so embarrassed i started to laugh in embarrassment. and then i was laughing so hard because everyone was staring at me and then i was hiccuping and then i was laughing so hard i was crying. and that just set the tone. the six of us spent the next two hours in that small luxurius space cracking up, speaking chinglish and charades. me bright red through the whole experience and laughing hysterically. we all were. there was one point when molly's boy was laughing so hard he couldn't breath, his face was red, he was trying to cover his face with one arm while tears rolled down his face. he fell totally sideways, couldn't even sit up and only his death grip on one of molly's feet with his spare hand kept him from falling all the way off his stool. it was AWESOME!!!! it may be one of my top ten travelling memories. ever.

well, it's getting late and i have a plane to catch. back to the mexico where i will be bring my smile home.

i did it my way...

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Comments

[Sylvia]

Bye, Arielle! Thanks for Sharing!
Nice post, wonderful pictures. Thank you for sharing parts of your Summer 2008 in Beijing with all of us. So glad that you have so many good memories to own forever. Now,...FLY! Mexico awaits your beaming smile!