I haven’t written at all lately, because I’ve been busy having a great time in Qingdao. Initially, we were planning to stay in Qingdao for three or four days. By the afternoon of our first day, Joylani mentioned she could stay for awhile. Initially, it was the beach, the old Bavarian town, the nice climate, and the awesome atmosphere that appealed to us. But after hanging with Jeff and his crew, and then Matt, we decided to stay for longer. We did do some touristy things, like visit the beach (which was disappointing due to a massive algae outbreak) and explore downtown, but we’re really going to remember Qingdao as an awesome week of hanging with friends. Jeff was incredibly hospitable and generous; not only did we crash at his place, but he even treated us to tons of meals. Plus, his group of friends adopted us for a week, which was really cool. And Matt took time our of his busy schedule to come see us from his place a couple hours away.

A few highlights from the past week include:

Night activities. One of our first nights, we headed out to a bar for an open-mic night of which Jeff, Sam, and Sha Zhou were the undisputable highlight. Sha Zhou gave me a copy of his latest album too. One night, Sam and Sha Zhou took Joylani and I out for a night of billiards. After a long and challenging attempt at snookers, we reverted to pool. And out last night, we all went out to an arcade.

The Food. One our first night, Jeff introduced us to Qingdao BBQ. We definitely had our fill of BBQ in the past week, consuming piles and piles pork and beef skewers along with tons of plates of seafood and veggies. On quite a few nights, we had late-night meals or snacks at the so-called “corner bbq,” a little stand that opens up on the sidewalk kitty-corner to Jeff’s apartment. Staying up late into the night downing beers and BBQ will be some of my favorite memories of Qingdao- especially the 45-skewer night that lasted until 4am. Ah, the corner BBQ. All the meals with Jeff, Matt, and new friends were good times of conversation and fun.

The Beer. When in Qingdao, drink Tsingtao. Lets just say we followed that.

The People: Besides our awesome friends who helped us with everything from constant translating to medical recommendations, Qingdao-ians are great. We’ve found this to be true throughout China and Qingdao is no different.

To recap: fun, food, beer, friends. It was an amazing week.