The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.
Crunchy numbers
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,300 times in 2010. That’s about 3 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 27 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 77 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 124mb. That’s about 1 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was November 15th with 50 views. The most popular post that day was CIMG0686.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, fortunatecookieadventures.blogspot.com, alphainventions.com, botd.wordpress.com, and en.wordpress.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for pepperdine lipdub 2010 with music, pepperdine lipdub 2010, pepperdine lip dub 2010, pepperdine lipdub, and chinese acrobat pattern.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
Things Adored. April 2010
1 comment
Picture Perfect. July 2010
1 comment
LIPDUB-Pepperdine 2010 August 2010
Follow the leader! September 2010
1 comment
Here is my favorite French poem of all time…one of the best teachers I’ve ever had made us memorize it in high school and I’ve never forgotten it. Google Translate if you will, but I am posting it in French because that’s the way it’s meant to be read. It’s very dark, very beautiful, and very chilling. Thanks, Baudelaire, for helping me procrastinate tonight.
Spleen
Quand le ciel bas et lourd pèse comme un couvercle
Sur l’esprit gémissant en proie aux longs ennuis,
Et que de l’horizon embrassant tout le cercle
II nous verse un jour noir plus triste que les nuits;
Quand la terre est changée en un cachot humide,
Où l’Espérance, comme une chauve-souris,
S’en va battant les murs de son aile timide
Et se cognant la tête à des plafonds pourris;
Quand la pluie étalant ses immenses traînées
D’une vaste prison imite les barreaux,
Et qu’un peuple muet d’infâmes araignées
Vient tendre ses filets au fond de nos cerveaux,
Des cloches tout à coup sautent avec furie
Et lancent vers le ciel un affreux hurlement,
Ainsi que des esprits errants et sans patrie
Qui se mettent à geindre opiniâtrement.
Et de longs corbillards, sans tambours ni musique,
Défilent lentement dans mon âme; l’Espoir,
Vaincu, pleure, et l’Angoisse atroce, despotique,
Sur mon crâne incliné plante son drapeau noir.
-Charles Baudelaire
Dear Friday Finals,
This is where I am studying for you tonight. International Relations and Chinese 152…watch your back. I just drank a “mokalatte” and I am about to own you.
Love,
Abby
A little bit about my weekend…
On Saturday night, I went to the Era: Intersection of Time acrobat show at Shanghai Circus World with Gavin and Donny. It was CRAZY. Here are pictures of the show that I found online…they wouldn’t let us take our own, unfortunately. I want to emphasize that these pictures do NOT do the show justice. I think my favorite act was the one where they drove 8 motorcycles into a tiny metal ball and made crazy patterns inside it. It was amazing how no one wrecked.
These guys were too cool. This wheel was spinning so quickly, and they were alternately juggling fire and doing acrobatics.
These girls were crazy flexible.
They were spinning all of these plates AND dancing. It was awesome.
This was Donny, me, and Gavin at the show!
Yesterday, I went on a search for the Pearl Market with my friend Donny. We pushed ourselves into the crowded subway and anxiously awaited our stop, which was supposed to be at the Shanghai Museum of Science & Technology. Well, little did we know..yesterday the subway chose not to stop at the Shanghai Museum of Science & Technology. Instead, it skipped right on over to Century Park. Donny and I, who were unable to comprehend the Chinese announcement made as our subway thundered past our dark and abandoned stop, decided to deboard at Century Park. We figured if we walked in the direction we knew the subway came from then eventually we would find the Pearl Market. Well, as you probably figured…that didn’t happen and eventually we gave up and went home. However, we DID get some cotton candy.
That’s all for now! I’ve gotta go study for my Chinese final on Friday!!
Love, love, love
Abby
P.S.
Here’s a little food for thought:
“If you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.” -W. Somerset Maugham
It occurred to me today that you all probably don’t know much about where I actually live, so I’m posting to tell you about the area in Shanghai where I spend my days. After Chinese today, I rode my bike the ten minutes it takes to get to Subway (the restaurant, not the transportation) and then took a stroll through the park behind the temple. I honestly can’t even tell you its name, but this gorgeous little park is my diamond in the rough. In a city that doesn’t see Mother Nature very often, this little park is tucked away right by our house and is such a breath of fresh air that I feel like I should share the love.
There are beautiful shaded pathways.
And tree tunnels. Lots of tree tunnels.
This old guy kept pretending to sleep, but then he would open one eye to stare at me.
People here LOVE to stare at foreigners.
The park has some really cool statues. This one is about two feet tall.
Across the street from the park is Jing An temple, which has a crazy long history. I’ll spare you the lesson, but you should definitely google it. This temple is a HUGE part of our lives in Shanghai. For one thing, it is a prime meeting place. We always meet people at the temple. For another, its Chinese name is relatively easy to pronounce. Sometimes when you get stuck with a taxi driver whose Mandarin is unintelligible, the best thing to do is to tell him you want to go to “Jing An Se.” You usually get there alright, and the temple is only a five or ten minute walk from our house. This is it…please note that this ancient (and heavily renovated) temple is next to a mall with way over 15 stories. Welcome to China, people.
It’s also occurred to me that you guys haven’t seen my bike yet…well here she is!! Sometimes I call her Sophie. 
She is a little dirty in this picture, so please excuse her need for a bath. As you can see, she is accessorized with a pink wicker basket and a little squeaker dog that sits on her handlebar.
I miss you guys. I’ll write something for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I love you all.
Love love love,
Abby
This past Friday, my friends and I were lucky enough to model for City Weekend’s Tenth Anniversary party. Check out the pictures.
Hello everyone!
I’m back in Shanghai now, currently procrastinating from starting my Religion reading and I thought I’d give y’all a quick synopsis of some incredible things we did, saw, and experienced in Tibet. The best way for me to do this is through pictures since I took in such a huge influx of information in just six days.
བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས, friends. In Tibetan, this is pronounced “tashi delek,” and means “blessings and good luck.” I think that’s a beautiful way to greet a person, to bless them and wish them luck.
We’ve only been in Tibet for a few hours, but I decided to write a little something so that I wouldn’t fall asleep before dinner. The altitude here is crazy; Tibet boasts an average elevation of 16,000 feet. That said, there’s quite a few of us experiencing altitude sickness. I’m going strong so far, but the decrease in oxygen is very tangible. My backpack felt about three times heavier getting off the plane than it did getting on.
When we deboarded the plane and found our tour guides/EMT’s (in case of altitude sickness), they presented us each with a khatag, or white scarf as they welcomed us to their home.
This is my view from the plane window as we flew over Tibet today:
More later. All my love and blessings.
The Chinese have a propensity for cutting lines. At the supermarket. At the park. At the Expo. In traffic. On the subway. Wherever and whenever.
Last night while studying for my Religion 102 midterm, I took a study break and Sophia (my hot pink bicycle) and I detoured to Café 85, a local Chinese bakery serving bountiful amounts of bread and coffee. It’s the kind of place where you select your pastry of choice and bring it up to the counter so the barista can ring you up. After grabbing my food and deciding on my drink order, I stepped in line to wait my turn. Right when I finally stepped up to the counter, a stubby little man jumped in front of me, threw his bread down, and shoved a fistful of change at the barista. Now, let me pause here to say that normally the cashiers could care less about line decorum, but this barista had some flair. He had carefully witnessed Stubby’s little show and I guess he decided it was time to lay down the law. Barista-man actually sent him to the back of the line. I understand that in America this is “no big,” but here in China…this is BIG. So I’m writing this to thank you, Mr. Barista, for helping out a stressed American right in her time of need.
All my love,
Abby
