John and I celebrated (kind of) our one-year wedding anniversary today. One year, schmon year, a scant 12 months. I actually prefer to go by our real anniversary date: August 23, 1996. I know, ’96 was ages ago. I was just a sophomore in college for crissakes! So anyway, I ordered a “western-style” cake, which I biked to pick up this morning. After taking extreme precautions to ensure the safe arrival of our precious wedding-cake substitute, I was extremely disappointed by the blandness of the cake and the flavorless 2 cm-thick layer of frosting, i.e. whipped eggwhite. So lame. I mean, where was all sugar, butter, and cream?

We both spent much of the morning working. I prepped for my classes this week, while John caught up with his to-do list. I received a call from my Duke bud Matt Collin. Matt just got into NYU B-School, so he’s heading up to NYC come summer. NYC seems to be the place now– first Ali and Pitch, then Tricia, now Grace, Matt, and Rira.

In other news, John and I followed our weekend trip to Beijing (we missed the SARS revival by a week!) with two days in Hangzhou. We went with my cousin Ya-Ya and her hubby Wangjian. We took a 2-hour train ride to HZ Saturday morning and returned Sunday night. Of course, the return train tickets were sold out, so we had to take the bus. Though this ride wasn’t as bad as the endless 20-hour bus journey to Beijing, it did take 4 hours instead of the quoted 2. Damn road construction, I tell you.

Regardless, Hangzhou was a dream. So very beautiful. The West Lake is surrounded with old cypresses and willows. Since 2002, the area government has focused on jazzing up the area to attract retail and tourists. In China there is a saying: In the skies, there is heaven. On Earth, there is Hangzhou and Suzhou. We took lots of pics. I’ll let you know when they are uploaded. John and I were a little frustrated the first day, as we wasted most of it trekking around town accomplishing logistics (getting a hotel, getting bus tickets, etc.), trying to save a few kuai. Unfortuantely, efficiency is a foreign concept over here. Drives me insane. It’s always just about price. Forget convenience, value, or service. The second day was better. We split up and met later. John and I got tons done: walked more around the Lake and took in more scenic stops. We rode the bus to Nine Creeks, went through a small park, and bought Longjing tea (a specialty of the area). My cousin was surprised we did all that in a few hours. 🙂

John and I will definitely be heading back to HZ in the near future.