central asia

I recently found a bunch of fisheye photos from our trip to central asia last summer.. I guess I never loaded them onto my computer, and just forgot about them.

traditional house for your nomadic lifestyle:

gorgeous views while stuck in traffic:

brightly colored benches:

and oh so lovely grass!!

I also added a page on the side ------->
of the ground in central asia... i took so many pictures, because it was just so perty.

sandcastles in the saaanndd

on Thursday, Greg and I went down to G-town (Galveston) for a mini photo shoot. going from my house, to car, to hobby lobby, doesn't make for interesting ground shots, and I needed to replenish my stash.

We stopped by our Galveston house.. It was built in 1905, and had been abandoned for about 20 years when my parents bought it. They spent 3? years restoring it.. I thought I had posted about it before, but I guess not. It miraculously survived Hurricane Ike with only 3 feet of water in the first floor. While my parents were here in Houston, without power, I was in East Asia looking at this house from a satellite image on the city's website. I was able to tell them the house was still there, and the roof was intact. It only took them a couple of weekends to get it ready for the our renters to move back in.

My dad recently built this brick walkway in the backyard... he's so skilled. hah

guess who built that porch on the second floor?? none other than yours truly.

After stopping by the house, we went over to the strand for milkshakes and to look at the cool buildings.. THIS building survived the 1900 Storm, and 8? feet of water with Ike.

Oh Galveston, and your smelly beaches...

and murky water.

we still love you.

go stros

I just got these fish eyes developed.. just some images from the astros game a few weeks ago.. note the thread design in the sidewalk outside of minute maid park..

and the lovely minute maid park... too bad the other pictures i took with people didn't turn out :(

happy bday

Saturday was Where My Feets Have Been's one year birthday!

so, in celebration, I'm posting some Feets highlights from the past year. get ready for a lengthy post!


we took soo many trips to get street food:


relaxed on some beaches:


fed some monkeys:


ate lots of korean barbeque:


prepared for below 0 temperatures:




wished you a merry christmas!


danced in the new year:


took LOTS of trains:


experienced monsoon season in malaysia:


walked above the jungle:


were pampered in vietnam:


took some tiny planes:

admired the streets of central asia:

and made it safely back to houston.

wow, what a year!

nerd alert

So, a long time ago, probably high school bio, i learned about some special mushrooms and what they can do to your brain. jk! i learned about their root structure. its SO COOOOL. I learned somewhere that the part of these mushrooms you see are actually the 'fruit', and the entire plant mostly exists underground. Their root systems are CIRCULAR! Ever since I learned this I've been on the lookout for an entire ring or mushrooms, but I have never seen one.

until Today.

behold the magnifcant ring of mushrooms.
found not so far from my own home.

cool huh?

soo.. i googled this just now, and figured out they are called "fairy rings" because people used to think they were put there by fairies. but, actually, it is a fungus that has eaten up all of the nutrients in one area of soil, so it expands outward. the mushrooms that you see on top of the soil are on the edge of the ring i guess? interesttingg....

houston

On monday greg and i went downtown for a much needed photo walk. i've been cooped up in the house calling potential employers, so it was great to get out and visit downtown.

i got to see the place my grandma lived when she moved to houston. it is being demolished soon, so it was cool to see it again. it is the place my grandparents met.

also walked by the building she worked in:

downtown is pretty fun, i guess. hah

our water guy

this past year, we were not able to drink tap water, so we had to call and have some spring water delivered about every two weeks. we got to know our water guy pretty well over the course of the 6 months we knew him. we would see him on the street a lot, he would come over for short english lessons, we would give him little gifts from the places we traveled and he even brought his daughter over one time.

well, the night before we left, we got an unexpected knock on the door. who was it, but ding wen cheng, our water guy. he was so happy that he caught us before we left, and said he had a present for us.

he had this russian guy who lives across the street sketch his portrait for us, so that we would never forget him. isn't that the sweetest thing ever? now i know i will always remember him

also found this pic of my feets on a rainy day in berkeley, circa feb, 2008:

some extras.

you can buy sunflower seeds STILL in the sunflower!

starbucks actually has pretty cool architecture...

the wall.

while we were exploring the north, we were able to jump on a bus full of laowai and drive out to see this awesome wall! which may look familiar...

so this section of the wall was built over 2200 years ago, and was restored in 1984, so that's why it looks all new. stretching over 4000 miles long it is also known as the longest cemetery in the world. because a lot of men traveled way outside the city to build the wall, and many of them died in the process, instead of hauling them back to the city, they just buried them under/in the wall. isn't that awesome?!?

and then we climbed this crazy steep part:

view from the top.. so worth the climb!

and our feets from the top!