Back from China!

I'm baaaaccck!  I actually got back on Monday night, after almost missing my flight!  Fog/smog has been very heavy in Beijing and a lot of flights or canceled/delayed so I had the toughest time flying back into Beijing, where my international flight to LA was leaving from.  So I ended up at the check in counter an hour before boarding, and made it back home!  It feels nice to be home, but it's been pretty cold in LA as well, however the temperature is going up to the 80s this weekend... hooray!  I love SoCal weather.  I bundled up in China, wearing many layers and I felt ok for the most part.  Except windy Beijing got me sick within 3 days of being there!  Wind chill is horrible there.  And by the way, the Sorel Shila suede boots and the Laundry by Shelli Segal down jacket I bought were such life savers!  I'm really amazed by the boots... they kept my toes toasty warm every time I wore them!  And the jacket with the hood on was perfect, and the style seemed to fit in with what everyone there wore too.

I meant to write from China, but I had really really slow wifi connection everywhere I was able to get on!  I could barely check my emails.  And China blocks facebook, so I felt a little cut off from the rest of the world.  It took some getting used to.  On the contrary, I ate a bunch of good food so everything has its ups and downs... hahaha!

I spent New Years Eve in Beijing, and actually hung out with an old friend from the States who moved there to learn Chinese.  We went to a house party at this very posh apartment of a Danish guy who works and lives there.  In Shanghai, I also hung out with a friend from LA who is currently going to MBA school there, along with his buddy visiting him from LA and his funny Russian/Dutch girlfriend.  She was so out there, and would say stuff like: "we would like to have our bill, but first we would like to have ___ on the house" at restaurants.  She says "if you don't try, it's always no".  It's so completely the opposite of how I am, I was very entertained by that.  So anyway, I hung out with a bunch of Americans and Europeans in China... haha... I had a great time though, and met some very interesting people!

Here's a photo I took on the Great Wall.  Since it was cold, not many people were there at all, and I ended up taking this picture of a completely empty wall!  It's pretty rare indeed.

Oh yeah, I saw the funniest thing in Shanghai... there is this park in the middle of the city called People Square.  Apparently, on certain days, there is a huge meat market composed of parents with ads displaying their kids stats, and what kind of partner they are looking for!  The ads would typically say whether the kid is male or female, their age, their height, what they do for work and their contact info on top, and on the bottom it would have a list of requirements of what they are looking for in a partner, such as age, height, where from, and minimum income requirement (mostly women looking for men).  This place was so funny!  It's just completely filled with parents with these ads, and other people walking around looking at them, but never the merchandise themselves.  And no photos either.  They also don't like it when you take pictures so this was the best I could sneak in, though the scale there was much larger than this photo represents:

I guess if you are a retired parent worried about your child, you might as well go there and see what happens!  Lol!

Ok anyways, so I know I haven't posted in a while, and I actually took photos of these outfits from before I left.  I don't even remember what days or the specific workouts I did in each outfit, but I thought I'd post them now anyways so they don't go to waste!

Here is, I believe, my workout outfit from Christmas Eve.  I actually went to workout on Christmas Eve before dinner!  I was proud of myself for that... hahaha.  I ran and lifted weights...

I wore my lavender dusk Practice Freely Tank with black Ebb & Flow crop and Skora Phase shoes.

As to and from, I wore my Lift Your Spirits jacket.

Here's a work outfit where I wore my Calvin Klein color blocked pencil skirt, a black tank top under the essential cardigan.  I actually really love this cardigan and am glad I got it in 2 colors for such a good price!

And I believe I went to hot yoga in this outfit later on in the week:  Hot Class tank in coal/purple crush with Ebb & Flow crops in deep indigo.

So I didn't workout much the week before I left.  And I did not workout at all during my vacation.  Of course I also ate a whole lot!  So I feel rather bloaty and gross right now.  But I'm getting back into it today! I seriously can't wait to get back into my workout regimen.  It really does feel great to workout and I've missed it!