woke up around 11am this morning after going to bed last night at 3:30am. in my dreams i was once more back in hong kong, this time exploring a make-believe cave-temple complex.

i decided to go out, take a walk down to harvard square, mail off the bundle of pirated cd's i picked up for alex while in hong kong. i visited my community garden plot, full of weeds with a few wildflower plants popping up here and there. somebody had planted some begonia in my plot, probably a futile attempt to beautiful my neglected gardenspace. embarassed, i quickly left before anyone spotted me.

the walk into harvard square took some getting used to. after seeing nothing but asian faces for the past 3 months, it came as a surprise to see so many western faces. i felt out of place, like a stranger in my own home and wanted to gawk at the laowai as they walked by, a common chinese practice. facing an identity crisis, i mailed off the package and walked back home.

i spent the rest of the day with my photos, finally organized all the directories, now i have to create the catalog. my mother dropped by briefly to ask about the prices of the various necklaces and bracelets i bought for her from western sichuan. she showed me a simple test to see if a stone is fake or not (i wish i'd known this earlier), but even the fake ones, just because i bought them from places so far away, are still sort of special.

after she left manny came over with some wings. i gave him a present, a wooden carving of an elephant balancing chinese ingots on its back. i bought it in shaping from a bai minority woman at a weekly market.