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When I got this card, I was excited because it was my first card from China.  When I read the back of the card, and found out where it had come from, I was even more excited.  Of all of the places in the world that a postcard could have been sent from, this postcard was sent from Xiamen, China, the city I lived in for six months.

Gulangyu is a beautiful little island.  I loved to go there and just walk around because it was quiet – at least once you got off the ferry and ran past the vultures trying to sell you over priced crap.  They loved to try and sell you those annoying magnetic rocks.  It was also quiet because cars are not allowed on the island.  If you want to go anywhere, you either have to walk or take an electric golf cart – which isn’t free.  The island is small, though, so walking isn’t a big deal.

Also, when you are on the island, you sorta feel like you have been transported somewhere in Europe because almost all of the buildings look like the one above – very Victorian.  Why are there Victorian style buildings on a Chinese island?  Well, the island was populated by foreigners for many years following the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.  Most of the buildings were offices and residences of Consulate-Generals.

Guylanyu is particularly famous for its Piano Museum – the only one of its kind in China.  I didn’t visit the museum when I was there, but I’m sure it’s nice.  There are speakers throughout the island that constantly play piano music.  It’s very relaxing.

Another awesome thing about Gulangyu are the trees.  Compared to many other parts of China that I saw, Gulangyu has lots of old trees.  You can sorta see how big they are in the picture.

If you ever find yourself on Gulangyu, I suggest that you either bring some bug spray or leave the island before the sun starts to set.  When I was there I was attacked by the most ferocious mosquitoes.  For a week, I had the biggest, reddest, itchiest mosquito bites that I have ever had in my life.  Mosquitoes don’t normally bother me too much, but man, these were absolutely horrible!

The back of the postcard said the name of the building was Eight Diagram Pagoda, but I don’t think that is right.  For one, the building does not look like a pagoda at all.

If you are visiting Xiamen, you can take the ferry for free to Gulangyu, but when you want to leave, you have to pay one yuan to get back.  Tricky little devils, eh?  You also have the choice to take the ferry, or pay a little extra to take a speed boat.  Unless you are in a huge rush, take the ferry.

Oh, and if you haven’t noticed, I have uploaded all of my postcards.  To see them, click on the photo tab and then click gallery.

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I love castles.  If I was filthy rich, I would totally buy one  . . . possibly two or three.  Of course, it would have to be haunted, because no castle is complete without a ghost or two.  🙂 I have no idea what I would do with 30+ rooms, but I am sure I’d think of something.  I’d probably end up painting them all purple.  🙂

The internet didn’t have much to say about Boskovice or the castle in question – I still don’t know its name.  If you happen to be privy to such information, please enlighten me.

I think the thing I love most about the castle on this postcard is the rolling hills that it is situated on.  I’m sure that it provides an awesome view of the surrounding areas.

There is a particular castle in Germany that I really want to see.  It’s called Neuschwanstein, and it is located outside of Munich. The Sleeping Beauty castle at Disneyland was modled after it.  Phil and I may very well be going to Germany this year, and if we do, you better believe we’re going to find a way to tour it.  I think it would be an awesome place to get married.  Hmm . . . the wheels just started turning in my head.  I wonder if my dad would spring for that?

Quantum is usually far more active than this video shows, but since he is nocturnal, he sleeps all day and stays up all night.  I just wanted to let you guys see him.  When I can catch him doing something really interesting at night, I’ll post it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUSRUW7R-0Y[/youtube]

This is going to be a teaser post because I don’t want to reveal what exactly we have done until I have pictures.

On Sunday, Phil woke me up bright and early at about 8:30 AM.  This is highly unusual because Phil loves to sleep all day.  Usually, it’s me asking him to get out of bed so that we can enjoy the day doing something outdoors.  And he hates me for it.  So, I guess he was just trying to give me a taste of my own medicine.  Well, anyway, half asleep, Phil informs me that I need to get up and get dressed because we are driving to Atlanta to get some lamb.  Why do we need to go all the way to Atlanta to get lamb, you ask?  There is a grocery store there called Super H Mart, and it sells all sorts of yummy, Asian goodness – food – not people.  Particularly, they sell thinly sliced lamb that we love.  We fell in love with it in China and it was by far our favorite dish.  When we last went to Atlanta in July, we bought several pounds of it.  Seven months later, our supply is nearly gone.  Since having no lamb in the house would make us unhappy, it seemed like a great idea.  An hour later, we were in the car and on our way to Atl.

30 minutes away from our destination, we came across the Pendergrass Flea Market.  The place is huge and I mean HUGE.  Phil had been there before, but since I hadn’t, he wanted to let me see it.  The place was a complete mad house.  There were people everywhere.  It took something like ten minutes to find a parking place!  Once inside we strolled around seeing if there was anything worth buying.  I really didn’t see anything, I never really do at flea markets, but Phil found a Playstation 1 controller that he needed.  Phil thought they had animals, so we walked around looking for any they might have. We didn’t see any at first.  As we were just about to leave I saw a sign with pets written in red, pointing down a hall way. I think it was the one area we hadn’t looked before giving up.  Why does that always seem to happen?

I’ll give you this much:

It’s cute.

It’s furry.

It’s about 9 weeks old and weighs about 1 oz.

It isn’t native to South Carolina or any state for that matter.

I’ve wanted once since I first saw them at an exotic pet show at Jamil Temple years and years ago.

He makes the strangest, but cutest sounds ever.

He’s nocturnal by nature.

And his name is Quantum.

And for the record, this was totally Phil’s idea.  I just gave him permission.

Can you guess what it is?  I’ll take some pictures of him soon.  He’s a little scared right now, and I don’t want my camera to cause him any more stress. I imagine that when he gets acquainted with his surroundings – he is going to become a regular on this little blog.  I hope you all like him as much as Phil and I do.

PS My boss said that I just need to get married and have a baby.  Whereas I am sure that would help with the need to have something to love at all times,  human babies aren’t furry and they don’t purr.

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I am always very excited when postcards arrive in my mailbox from countries that either A) I don’t get often, or B) I haven’t gotten at all.  This is my first postcard from Spain.

I don’t know what to say about this postcard.  I tried looking up information on the artist, Malcolm Greensmith, but I couldn’t find a whole lot about him, other than that he is a renowned military artist.  I don’t know when he was born, or if he is still living.  I’m assuming he is from Great Britain because that is where the card was printed, but who knows if that is a correct assumption. If you like his artwork, there are several sites offering cross stitching designs created by him.

I’m not sure how ploughing is related to the miltary, so perhaps this was drawn by a differnt Malcolm Greensmith.  Either way, I like the postcard because it’s cute and has animals on it.  Perhaps, that is why the sender chose it for me.  I like the old feeling the postcard has, too.  It reminds me of the country.  It would be nice to have a horse to help me plough my garden this year.  I am not looking forward to hacking away at the ground again, even though the hard work eventually pays off.

PS  If you by chance know more about this Malcolm Greensmith guy, be sure to share your knowledge in the comment section.

Shopping for my brother’s birthday gifts, I over heard a conversation between a little boy and his father.

The Little Boy:  “Germs are fluffy.”

Father: “No they aren’t.”

The Little Boy:  “Oh, yeah, that’s right.  They are little black bugs that live in your body.”

It made me smile.

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I can only imagine what type of people are going to end up at my blog with a title like Blue Tit.  I guess it doesn’t matter how they get here, as long as they get here, and most importantly, stay.  Although, if they are looking for anything other than a Blue Tit bird, they will sadly be disappointed when they do arrive.  🙂

The sender of this card said, “It is a very common bird in Finland and stays here the whole winter while most birds are spending winter time somewhere in warm southern countries.”

I at first thought she was talking about a type of bird we have here in South Carolina called a Tit Mouse, but when I looked it up in Wikipedia, I found they are different types of birds, although, they do come from the same Tit bird family – the Paridae.

In Finnish, a Blue Tit is called a Sinitiainen, and they only have a lifespan of about 1.5 years.  Blue Tits are considered valuable destroyers of pests, like aphids, but can also be annoying pests as well.  They sometimes pull off the buds of various trees in search of insects to eat.  Another thing I found interesting, is that a pair of Blue Tits will use the same nesting box year after year.  When that pair dies, another pair will take its place.  Wikipedia didn’t say, but I guess that means they mate for life.

This spring I want to go bird watching. I hope that I can take pictures like the one above of the various South Carolina birds.  I’ve tried getting pictures of the ones in my yard, but they hide too far up in trees and won’t sit still for nothing.

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Recently, I updated my Postcrossing profile with a more specific list of the types of postcards I would like to receive.  Postcrossing says that you can’t demand a certain type of postcard, but that you can give suggestions to help other users choose from the postcards they have.  It is not that I didn’t like the postcards I was getting.  All of my postcards are great.  I just wanted to let the other users know what I would enjoy most – if they had that type of card to send.

I indicated that I loved faeries, and if anyone had a postcard with a faerie on it, I would love to become its owner.  A few days later, this arrived in my mailbox.  It rocks not only because it is a faerie, but because it is a purple faerie. Anyone who knows me, knows how obsessed with purple I am.

I am almost certain that this an Amy Brown faerie, but I didn’t see her signature anywhere on the front or a snippet on the back telling me so.  I asked the sender if it was, but she never got back to me.   Hot Topic use to sell Amy Brown faerie calenders, cards, and other stuff, but now I can’t find her faeries anywhere other than online.  And this wasn’t an originally a postcard.  The sender said it had been a regular card, but that she transformed it into a postcard for me because she knew how much I liked faeries.

If I was just a smidge talented, I would draw faeries all day long.  I can’t even draw a stick figure properly. 🙁  At work the other day, I tried to draw one just to see how it would turn out.  I found out that I am pretty good at wings, but I can’t draw a face or body to save my life.

Phil thinks I am absolutely insane to believe that faeries actually exist.  I guess that is part of the kid in me that never grew up.  🙂  He thinks that people mistook hummingbirds or insects for faeries.  Maybe they did.  Who knows.

One year down, a half a billion more to go before I can retire.  🙂  And only four more years until I am vested!

Time flies by so fast.  I look at my calendar and I know it has been a year since I started working for USC, but it sure as heck doesn’t feel like it.

For the most part, I think my job has been pretty good to me.  It’s not real stressful, and my co-workers are nice.  Like everyone, I wish I got paid more, but oh, well.  Maybe one day. Not this year, though.  Not even a percent.  🙁  It’s the economy’s fault and the fact that I work for the State.

Perhaps the coolest thing about my job is that I can take one free class a semester.  I have yet to take advantage of this – mainly because I can’t decide what I want to do yet.  I debating if I should take ballroom dancing in the fall.  Anyone want to do it with me?

And actually, my one year at USC was on February 13th, but I was too lazy then to blog about it.

Oh, and I’ve finally scanned in all of my postcards, so I hope to start doing an Ana thing, soon.  People seem to like it.  Plus, it will give me something to blog about and I will learn in the process.  🙂