traveltraveltravel.

I know what you're thinking: "He wrote in December all about how he was going to be more proactive with his blog. He promised writing, and hasn't posted since... He's got a lot of nerve showing his face around here again."

Maybe you're kinder than that. If so, thanks. If not, I KNOW! I am the worst. There are two reasons for my absence. First and most serious, my VPN hasn't been working at all. Without it, I'm trapped behind the Great Firewall, and therefore cannot post. I have been unable. That doesn't mean, however, that I haven't been writing. I have quite the backlog that I need to publish (sound familiar?). At the current moment, I'm mooching a friend's VPN and thought I might have enough time to post something. 

The other, more awesome reason I've not posted in a while is because I've been busy. Busy travelling. I spent the entire month of January and the first half of February enjoying everything Yunnan has to offer (and making a pitstop in Chengdu for IST). I will talk more about all of that at a later date. However in the meantime, I'd like to ask anyone reading to remember how happy I was about my summer travel...

Saving Summer: Shanghai

After six weeks on crutches, doing physical therapy, in a general state of inactivity, I was free. I know I mentioned it once already, but that’s where this story begins: pure elation at finally being free, and a train ride.

After being a part of the new trainee’s site-placement announcement, I wanted to depart from Chengdu as soon as possible. This meant taking the first available ticket: a hard seat. The longest hard seat I had taken was Lanzhou to Chengdu, clocking in at twenty-one hours; this hard seat took a whopping thirty-two (if you’re curious about the inner-workings of my psyche, I wrote that sentence with an impression of Mo).

Injury report: a final update.

After spending what felt like an eternity in Chengdu (specifically, it was six weeks or 1010.3 hours, if you're curious), I was finally given permission to leave and carry on with my service. (This may not be news to those who saw my facebook updates the last couple days, but I [boldly, and probably erroneously] assume not all my readers are my friends on facebook, too.)

My stress fracture has healed enough that I am walking on it. My first week of walking on it came during Eco Camp (don't worry, a blog to come), and with each week, I'm doing more and more. I'm still resting often, and doing a lot of stretching and exercising. The first weeks of walking were difficult. My legs were constantly sore--I guess that's what happens when you don't walk on them for a month.

I didn't want to return to Lanzhou yet. Instead, my project for the remainder of August is Operation Save My Summer. Currently on the itinerary is Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan and Beijing. However, I'm not travelling with an itinerary, so things could change; I just want to relax and enjoy my time in each city (and on the orders of the PCMO, I shouldn't be climbing mountains or anything particularly adventurous).

I'm already enjoying Shanghai.

Also, if you haven't gotten a chance, learn something about The Great Firewall of China.