Sharon's Week 29: That's Me In The Orange Shirt

My title this week has nothing to do with any of my photos.  It refers to the clothes I had to wear for nine days until I was reunited with my luggage.  As I mentioned last week, my luggage did not make the trip with me to China.  I had insurance that would cover up to $500 to replace necessary items and William (our photography guide who happens to be from China originally) took me out shopping after I arrived (and washed out my clothes in the hotel room sink and dried them quickly with the blow dryer), but the Chinese are a small people and clothing does not come in my size.  After purchasing a men's jacket (in case it was cold during morning and evening shoots, which it wasn't), and having thirty different women shake their head at me when William asked about clothing, I gave up and resigned myself to washing out my clothes each night and hoping they'd be dry by morning.  One other thing about the Chinese that may be of interest, they don't wear deodorant so THAT was hard to find.  I was able to find a charger for my camera batteries and a cord for my laptop so with those important things taken care of, we moved on.

It was a very happy reunion when we returned to Xining and my luggage was waiting for me.  I had the longest shower with my own stuff, I brushed my hair with a real brush instead of a hotel comb and I put on clean (and different) clothes and smiled and smiled and smiled.  Then we went out to Pizza Hut for supper where they had (gasp!) frozen margaritas.  After dinner we did found this beautifully lit temple and did some night photography. It was the best day ever (perhaps coloured just a bit by the return of my bag).

wild card

I'm starting with my wild card today because it makes me happy.  This was taken at the canola fields in Qinghai province.

R

I looked and looked for Rs in trees and anywhere then when we were driving back into Xining and I was looking at billboards, I noticed this character.  Later, I found one near enough to photograph.  William says it means "people."

city skyline

Looking in the other direction from the beautifully lit temple, I saw this...

statue

Like Pam, I'm not sure this meets the strict definition of "statue" but there were three of these bike sculptures and they caught my eye.  Apparently, biking around Qinghai Lake is a big deal (there had been a race the day before we were there) and the hotel we stayed at was the headquarters for beginning the ride.  I tried to get cyclists between the bike sculptures but they wouldn't cooperate and I eventually had to get on the bus.

architecture

The pagoda roof was everywhere.  This one was at GuiDe geopark.

purple

I was sure when I was photographing these flowers that they were purple so you will just have to believe me even though they look pink here.

focus on the background

This is lame and forced I know and I looked through my week's photos in hopes of something better but came up empty-handed.

And that's another week down.