Well, it's been a wondrous week and a half here at the Casa de Bono in Needham. Although I haven't really left the house much, I don't feel like I've missed much for not doing so - I'm perfectly happy chilling with my family and friends and putting on as much weight as I possibly can in as short a time as possible.

And the internet! Lo, the high-speed, FIOS internet at my parents' house. I can download in hours what takes me days to download in China! Of course, if I was trying to download Chinese TV shows, they'd probably come down faster.

Christmas was wonderful; my whole family was around, younger brother and older brother (and older brother in-law), mom & dad and a couple of uncles. There was much drinking and I got quite tossed, actually, but woke up at 4 in the morning to see my old brother Andrew and his partner Phil out the door to the airport.

I gave out a variety of counterfeit goods for Christmas, including a bunch of watches to several of the males in my family. There's nothing quite like a thoroughly fake, yet very nice looking Omega that actually keeps good time. Now I just need to buy some watch straps that aren't cheap as hell. I love China.

In addition to my mom's digital camera, which I will be using to illuminate my life in China for all of you to read, I also received several books including a spy novel, a book about how to write about forensic psychology (totally awesome), a cool book by Kurzweil about the coming information singularity, the Steven Colbert "I Am America" book...not to mention a totally sweet leather-bound journal for my Chinese studies and whatnot.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. It was a very literary Christmas for me, and I got lots of cool swag from family and friends. I definitely have to bring more home for everyone next year!

Speaking of next year, I'd better start figuring out how I'm going to pay for my next set of US/China plane tickets - before they get outrageously expensive!