The Bucket List

Life seems to have gone into fast forward motion since I made the decision to leave Beijing, and the closer I get to my departure date the faster is whirls by. Two months and counting down and I will be back home-sweet-home. Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm sure I won't be long settled before itchy feet strike again, but this time I'm going to focus on scratching that itch only during the summer months and attempting to put down some roots.

So I find myself making my "bucket list" before I go. Last weekend I held a baby panda in Chengdu, so things are going according to plan. Of course there are a few places I just won't make it to before I go, but I have to say I've seen more of China than the average tourist.

Mission accomplished:

• Held a baby panda in Chengdu
• Salsa danced with a Colombian on a Yangtze River cruise
• got my Chinese driver's license
• Drove my Great Wall to the Great Wall (but the Great Wall was dry???)
• ate some Chinese food (ha)
• cheered in the stands at 4 Olympic events
• rode a Tibetan pony along the banks of a mountain lake
• danced the hua hua with the Naxi minority people
• had tea with a Tibetan monk
• stayed two nights in Shangri-la (but didn't appear noticeably younger)
• slipped on the ice at the Harbin Ice Festival, watched a chicken-eating tiger
• lost money in Macau (no, not into gambling--just spent too much on a lousy meal!)
• got to see the NZ All Blacks do the Haka! (the rugby was great, too)
• slept in a hard sleeper on an overnight train (ok, *laid* in a hard sleeper on ...)
• belly danced on a boat in Kowloon Bay
• ate donkey meat (not intentionally) and yak meat (intentionally) and yak butter tea

Not accomplished:

• Tibet (well, technically, Shangri-la is *in* Tibet, so I have been there.  I just didn't go to Lhasa)
• Haka Round Houses
• Yellow Mountain

Of course, it's always fun to keep score:
3,541- cab drivers who didn't understand my street name
1,912-Beijingers hawking lugeys
212- little baby butts hanging out split pants
163- men pissing on the side of the road
97- Pekingnese dogs trotting along
5- Fake robot cops at road construction
4- dead people lying in the road
1- dead cat (rest in peace, Nilufer Kediim--I won't leave you in Beijing)