Author Archives: Kirsten

My journey is almost at an end and I think that it is about time. I had a wonderful day today and intend to tell you all about it in this email. My Great Uncle and Aunt left today. I hugged my Uncle he said that he loved me before scuttling away extremely quickly with whatContinue reading “Day 15: ‘ I bought a tonne of things that I didn’t need but also really did.’”

I’m afraid I have been mostly idle today so far and so I shall bore you mostly with yesterday’s news. I am sorry that I was unable to correspond until now, I had a rather busy day yesterday.  Thursday 5th September: We waddled towards some castle walls at around 9am, after some more complaints about theContinue reading “Day 12/13: ‘Oh to be clean and slippery once more.’”

A little down today, my thoughts are plaguing me. Loud and clear they were for hours as we drove and drove and drove.  We set off to get to the ‘tomb and museum’ at 8:00am, once the driver had arrived – late as per usual. It was a two and a half hour drive, atContinue reading “Day 10: ‘My mistake, although a story about a gay empress in China would be great.’”

China has fortunately not felt too foreign at any one moment, with its people and its food often looking very familiar. I guess I feel more at home, I find the black oddly comforting, the view from my bed not unlike the inside of a tortoises hibernation box. What’s not to like about that? But IContinue reading “Day 9: ‘It was an extremely sexy mountain.’”

Oh how I have looked forward to writing this email today. I’m going to describe my day in moderate detail before attending to your questions and responses. It seems right to start by emphasising that a juxtaposition exists between the elderly village people that have joined me here and this hyper-modern, hyper young hotel. TheContinue reading “Day 8: ‘I think granola might have been lost in translation.’”

I’ve got to say, this day has been one of highs and lows. On the plane here (Xian) I considered making this email part of my hormonal diary, before I decided that this would not benefit you quite in the same way as it might myself. Nevertheless, for context I feel that you must knowContinue reading “Day 7: ‘It was there that I learnt that my Uncle doesn’t believe in climate change.’”

I write this quickly as I prepared to go to the gym, to run off some of the excess noodles. Of course I had turtles! Didn’t I mention them before? We released them into the wild and watched one sink like a stone to the bottom of the lake. I don’t hold out too much hopeContinue reading “Day 6: ‘Perhaps this is why we elevate our toilet seats.’”

This is going to be a very early morning email, as we have apparently dedicated the rest of the day to traveling from here to Guangzhou. That, and because I gave up watching one of the smaller boys fail to fish in the stream with a net. I’m glad to report that I shouldn’t haveContinue reading “Day 5: ‘I’m not sure that the murder of the man was indeed an overreaction…’”